Bowse

noun, verb

noun, verb ·1 syllable ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A carouse; a drinking bout; a booze.
Verb
  1. 1
    To drink excessively and socially; to carouse. archaic

    "O generous food! Drest as though bold Robin Hood, Would, with his maid Marian, Sup and bowse from horn and can."

  2. 2
    To haul or hoist (something) with a tackle.
  3. 3
    haul with a tackle wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bouse

Example

More examples

"O generous food! Drest as though bold Robin Hood, Would, with his maid Marian, Sup and bowse from horn and can."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English bousen, from Middle Dutch būsen, buisen, buysen (“to drink heavily”) (Dutch buizen). Related to Middle High German būsen (“to swell, inblow”). More at beer.

Etymology 2

Origin unknown.

Related phrases

bene bowse

More for "bowse"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.