/ˈɹaʊz/
OriginFrom Middle English rousen, from Anglo-Norman reuser, ruser, originally used in English of hawks shaking the feathers of the body, from Latin recūsō, by loss of the medial 'c.' Doublet of recuse.
Figurative meaning “to stir up, provoke to activity” is from 1580s; that of “awaken” is first recorded 1590s.
- An arousal.
- British, CanadaThe sounding of a bugle in the morning after reveille, to signal that soldiers are to rise from bed, often the rouse.
- An official ceremony over drinks.
“No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the King’s rouse the heaven shall bruit again,
Respeaking earthly thunder.”
- A carousal; a festival; a drinking frolic.
“Fill the cup, and fill the can:
Have a rouse before the morn:
Every minute dies a man,
Every minute one is born.”
- Wine or other liquor considered an inducement to mirth or drunkenness; a full glass; a bumper.
- transitiveTo wake (someone) from sleep, or from apathy.
“John Hedley was Locomotive Foreman at Beattock. He was in bed, but they roused him, and he gave orders for one of his pilot engines to go up to the summit, get Mitchell's train, and take it to Carlisl”
“Dubin slept through the ringing alarm, aware of Kitty trying to rouse him and then letting him sleep.”
- intransitiveTo be awoken from sleep, or from apathy.
“Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
Night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.”
“As for the heat, with which he treated his other adversaries, ’twas sometimes strain’d a little too far, but in the general was extremely well fitted by the Providence of God to rowse up a people, the”
“At Musick, Melancholy lifts her Head;
Dull Morpheus rowzes from his Bed;”
- To cause, stir up, excite (a feeling, thought, etc.).
“to rouse the faculties, passions, or emotions”
“[…] their first Step in Dangers, after the common Efforts are over, was always to despair, lie down under it, and die, without rousing their Thoughts up to proper Remedies for Escape.”
“‘You may think it all very fine, Mr. Huntingdon, to amuse yourself with rousing my jealousy; but take care you don’t rouse my hate instead. And when you have once extinguished my love, you will find i”
- To provoke (someone) to action or anger.
“He scarce had finisht, when such murmur filld
Th’ Assembly, as when hollow Rocks retain
The sound of blustring winds, which all night long
Had rous’d the Sea […]”
““A surgeon!” said Anne.
He caught the word; it seemed to rouse him at once, and saying only—“True, true, a surgeon this instant,” was darting away, when Anne eagerly suggested—
“Captain Benwick, would”
“He tried to argue with her. But it was like trying to argue with a tree: she did not even rouse herself to deny, she just listened quietly and then talked again in that level, cold tone as if he had n”
- To cause to start from a covert or lurking place.
“to rouse a deer or other animal of the chase”
“Deformed creatures, in straunge difference,
Some hauing heads like Harts, some like to Snakes,
Some like wilde Bores late rouzd out of the brakes,”
“Hark, the game is roused!”
- To pull by main strength; to haul.
“Tom, you and the boy rouse the cable up—get about ten fathoms on deck, and bend it.”
- obsoleteTo raise; to make erect.
“And ouer, all with brasen scales was armd,
Like plated cote of steele, so couched neare,
That nought mote perce, ne might his corse bee harmd
With dint of swerd, nor push of pointed speare,
Which as a”
“He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.”
- slangTo tell off; to criticise.
“He roused on her for being late yet again.”
- A surname.
- A census-designated place in Stanislaus County, California, United States.
- An unincorporated community in the town of Anderson, Iron County, Wisconsin.
Formsrouses(plural) · rouze(alternative, obsolete) · rouses(present, singular, third-person) · rousing(participle, present) · roused(participle, past) · roused(past) · Rowse(alternative)