▪ I.bouse,bowse,v.1|buːz,baʊz|Forms: 3, 6– bouse, bowse, 6–7 bowze, 7 bouz(e: see also booze.[ME.bousen,app.a.MDu.bûsen, earlymod.Du.buizen to drink to excess,corresp.toGer.bausen in same sense. The origin is not quite clear: Kluge takes theGer.vb.to be derived from baus,MHG.bûs blown-up condition, tumidity; but theDu.seems directly related to buise a large drinking-vessel. Bothvb.andn.occur (once) inME.; but they seem to have become generally known in 16th c. as words of thieves' and beggars' cant, whence they passed into slang and colloquial use. Perh. the use in Falconry came down independently fromME.Most commonly pronounced (buːz), and since 18th c. often phonetically written booze,q.v.]1.intr.To drink; to drink to excess or for enjoyment or goodfellowship; to swill, guzzle, tipple.c1300E.E.P. (1862) 154Hail ye holi monkes..depe cun ye bouse · þat is al ȝure care.
1567HarmanCaveat 32They bowle and bowse one to another.
1592NasheP. Penilesse (ed.2) 27 a,They lye bowzing and beere-bathing in their houses euery after-noone.
1648HerrickHesper. (1869) 211But before that day comes, Still I be bousing.
1790BurnsTam O'Shanter 5While we sit bousing at the nappy.
1839De QuinceyMurderWks.IV. 22He..had the honour of bowsing with him in the evening.
1876BrowningPacchiarotto, Epilogue x,I were found in belief that you quaffed and bowsed (rime-wds. caroused, drowsed).
b.to bouse it: in same sense.1623BinghamComp.Rom.&Mod.Warres,They play the Ruffians, and bouse it out in drinke.
1634Sir T. HerbertTrav.156So soone as the Sun sets, and the kettles beat, then they bowze it lustily.
2.trans.a1612HaringtonEpigr. i. 68Thou, professed Epicure, That..bowzest Claret wine.
1652BromeJov. Crew ii. 388For all this bene Cribbing and Peck let us then, Bowse a health to the Gentry Cofe of the Ken.
1848B. WalshAristoph. Clouds 312And the rascally jorum of soup that I've boused.
†3.Falconry. Of a hawk: To drink much (trans.andintr.).Cf.bousingvbl.n.2.1575Turberv.Falconrie 84With water before hir to the end she may bathe when she will and bouze as naturally they are enclined to do..for bowzing may oftentimes preserve them from sicknesse.
a1682Sir T. BrowneMisc.Tracts 115[They gave to hawks]a decoction of Cumfory to bouze.
▪ II.bouse,bowse,v.2 Chiefly naut.|baʊs|Also 8 bowss.[Of unknown origin: confounded in the dictionaries generally with bouse v.1=booze: but this rimes with house.]trans.To haul with tackle. Also absol.1593Sir. F. DrakeRev.inArb.Garner V. 497Felling of great trees; bowsing and hauling them together, with great pulleys and hawsers.
1627Capt.Smith Seaman'sGram.iii. 36The Younkers are the young men..for slinging the yards, bousing or trising.
1769FalconerDict.Marine (1789)To Bowse, to draw on any body with a tackle..This is pronounced bowce.
1816ScottAntiq.viii,As we used to bouse up the kegs o' gin.
1840MarryatPoor Jack xiii,We boused out our gun.
1868WoodHomes without H. xiv. 297The nautical method of ‘bowsing’ up a rope.
b.transf.1751SmollettPer.Pic.xiv. (D.)Pshaw! brother, there's no occasion to bowss out so much unnecessary gum[i.e.palaver].
c.to bowse up the jib (fig.): to drink heavily, to make oneself ‘tight’.1837MarryatDog Fiend ix.
1840―Poor Jack xxii,The captain used to bowse his jib up pretty taut every night.
▪ III.bouse,bowse,n.1|buːz,baʊz|Forms: 4 bous, 6– bouse, bowse, 8 bowze: see also booze.[Related to bouse v.: also booze,q.v.]1.colloq.Drink; liquor. (The firstquot.may mean a drinking-vessel.) About 1600 a word of vagabonds' cant.c1300in WrightLyric P. xxxix,Drynke to hym deorly of fol god bous..When that he is dronke ase a dreynt mous.
1567HarmanCaveat 34Then doth this vpright man call for a gage of bowse, whiche is a quarte pot of drinke.
1632MassingerNew Way, &c. ii. i,Wellborn. No bouse, nor no tobacco? Tapwell. Not a suck, sir.
1730–6Bailey,Bowze (with the Vulgar) any Sort of strong Liquor.
2.A drinking-bout, a carouse.1786BurnsTo J. Kennedy ii,An' if we dinna hae a bouze, I'se ne'er drink mair.
1812W. TennantAnster F. v. liii,With riot and with bouse.
1857S. OsbornQuedah iv. 53All hands had had what they graphically termed ‘a bowse⁓out’.
1858CarlyleFredk.Gt.(1865) I. iii. ix. 192A good bouse of liquor now and then.
▪ IV.bouse,n.2|baʊs,buːs|Also 7 bous.(Seequots.)1653E. ManloveLead-mines 266Fell, Bous, and Knockbarke, Forstid-oar and Tees.
1851TappingGloss.Derby Leadmining (E.D.S.),Boose, bouse, fell, bouse ore, lead ore in its rough state, or in other words the contents of a metalliferous vein, before the baser minerals are separated.
1866North Country, Durham &c.,Bouse, lead ore when picked out from the refuse rock.
▪ V.bouse,bousievar.boose, boosy, cattle-stall.
