carouse
/kəˈɹaʊz/
carouse verb: to engage in a noisy or drunken social gathering.
Verb
carouse (third-person singular simple present carouses, present participle carousing, simple past and past participle caroused)
- To engage in a noisy or drunken social gathering.
- We are all going to carouse at Brian's tonight.
- The prospect of two hundred (or more) loitering and carousing patrons streaming out of the club at 1 a.m. is profoundly disturbing to us.1986 February 15, John Cronin, “More To It Than Homophobia”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 31, page 5
- To drink to excess.
- If I survive this headache, I promise no more carousing at Brian’s.
- […] the cup-bearers did fill great gems made in form of cups with ancient wine, and the Demons caroused to Lord Juss deep draughts in honour of this day of his nativity.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 7
Noun
carouse (plural carouses)
- A large draught of liquor.
- […] therefore forward I went with my hey-de-gaies to Ilford, where I againe reſted, and was by the people of the towne and countrey there-about very very wel welcomed, being offred carowſes in the great ſpoon, one whole draught being able at that time to haue drawne my little wit drye; […]1600, William Kempe, Kemps nine daies vvonder, pages 4–5
- Had our great Pallace the capacity
To Campe this hoaſt, we all would ſup together,
And drinke Carowſes to the next dayes Fate […]c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- A drinking bout; a carousal.
- The early feast and late carouse.1725, Homer, “Book II”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC
- PORSON […] would not only frequently “steal a few hours from the night,” but see out both lights and liquids, and seem none the worse for the carouse.1835, Richard Gooch, Oxford and Cambridge Nuts to Crack, page 25
carouse meaning in Malayalam
carouse in Malayalam
- go on a drinking bout, drink and make merry, go on a spree
- മദ്യപിച്ചുകൂത്താടുക, കുടിച്ചുമദിക്കുക, മത്സരിച്ചുകുടിക്കുക, കുടിച്ചു മറിയുക, അമിതമായി മദ്യപിച്ചു ബഹളമുണ്ടാക്കുക, കുടിച്ചുകൂത്താടുക
Examples of carouse in a sentence
- On a road trip to Ithaca, NY, we were out carousing in the bars one fine weekend.
- Or as the actress likes to say: carousing.
- A carousing zone is a place where the ritualism of generating antinomian excitement prevails and may even be institutionalized.
Synonyms of carouse
Forms of carouse
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | carouses |
| present participle | carousing |
| past participle | caroused |
| past | caroused |
| Noun | |
| plural | carouses |
Origin of carouse
From Middle French carousser (“to quaff, drink, swill”), from German gar aus (literally “all out, quite out”), from gar austrinken (“to drink up entirely, guzzle”). Compare German Garaus.
Words formed from carouse
Words that rhyme with carouse
Questions about carouse
- What does carouse mean?
- Carouse means to engage in a noisy or drunken social gathering.
- What is carouse in Malayalam?
- Carouse in Malayalam is മദ്യപിച്ചുകൂത്താടുക, കുടിച്ചുമദിക്കുക, മത്സരിച്ചുകുടിക്കുക. See Carouse meaning in Malayalam.
- What part of speech is carouse?
- Carouse can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce carouse?
- Carouse is pronounced /kəˈɹaʊz/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of carouse?
- The past tense of carouse is caroused.
Words near carouse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: carouse (page history and authors); carouse (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-carouse.wav.
Cite this entry: “carouse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/carouse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.