douse
/daʊs/
douse verb: to plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse.
Verb (1)
douse (third-person singular simple present douses, present participle dousing, simple past and past participle doused)
- To plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse.
- Set fire to your matches! / Douse them in gasoline!2018, Jhariah Clare, “City of Ashes”, in The Great Tale of How I Ruined it All
- To fall suddenly into water.
- swing i' th'air, or douse in water1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished...
- To put out; to extinguish.
- The man who doused the fire was told to put the remainder of the coal into the bucket and then give the bucket to the soldier.1999, Arthur D. Jacobs, The Prison Called Hohenasperg
- Once you feel confident in your visualizations, you may douse the candle by blowing it out.2012, Kelly Henderson, Your Mythic Spirit Guide: Spirituality for a Creative Life
Noun (1)
douse (plural douses)
- A sudden plunging into water.
- In winter a douse in cold water helps the looks and adds to the style of the carcass, but they should be thoroughly dried before packing.1911, Cyphers Series on Practical Poultry Keeping, number 1, page 74
Verb (2)
douse (third-person singular simple present douses, present participle dousing, simple past and past participle doused)
Noun (2)
douse (plural douses)
Proper noun capitalized: Douse
Douse (plural Douses)
- A surname.
douse meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada
douse in Tamil
- விளக்கு முதலியவற்றை அணை, நீரில் அமுக்கு, நனை
douse in Malayalam
- soak, drench, saturate
- കുതിർക്കുക, നനയ്ക്കുക, നനച്ചു കുതിർക്കുക, ദ്രാവകത്തിൽ കുതിർക്കുക, ദ്രാവകത്തിൽ മുക്കുക, പൂരിതമാക്കുക
- put out, extinguish, quench
- കെടുത്തുക, അണയ്ക്കുക, കുത്തിക്കെടുത്തുക, നിറയ്ക്കുക, കെടുക്കുക, ഊതിയണയ്ക്കുക
douse in Kannada
- ತೋಯಿಸು, ನಂದಿಸು
Examples of douse in a sentence
- Now he rushed to the platform edge carrying a full fire bucket, in a forlorn attempt to douse the flames as the now brightly burning wagon rolled past.2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:
- Trump made efforts to douse the flames with ever-shifting explanations, excuses and distractions but merely poured fuel on the fire.2025 July 19, David Smith, “‘The ghost of Epstein is haunting Trump’s presidency’: inside the ‘Maga’ revolt”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Forms of douse
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | douses |
| present participle | dousing |
| past participle | doused |
| past | doused |
| alternative form | dowse |
| alternative form | douze |
| alternative form | douce |
| alternative form | dause |
| Noun | |
| plural | douses |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Douses |
Origin of douse
Probably of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish dunsa (“to plumb down, fall clumsily”), Danish dunse (“to thump”). Compare Old English dwǣsċan (“to extinguish”) and douse below.
From Middle English duschen, dusshen (“to rush, fall”), related to Norwegian dusa (“to break, cast down from”), Old Dutch doesen (“to beat, strike”), dialectal German tusen, dusen (“to strike, run against, collide”), Saterland Frisian dössen (“to strike”). Compare doss, dust.
Words formed from douse
Words that rhyme with douse
Questions about douse
- What does douse mean?
- Douse means to plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse.
- What is douse in Tamil?
- Douse in Tamil is விளக்கு முதலியவற்றை அணை, நீரில் அமுக்கு, நனை. See Douse meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use douse in a sentence?
- Now he rushed to the platform edge carrying a full fire bucket, in a forlorn attempt to douse the flames as the now brightly burning wagon rolled past.
- What part of speech is douse?
- Douse can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce douse?
- Douse is pronounced /daʊs/.
- What is the past tense of douse?
- The past tense of douse is doused.
Words near douse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: douse (page history and authors); Douse (page history and authors); douse (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); douse (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); douse (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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-douse.wav.
Cite this entry: “douse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/douse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.