drowsest

Verb

drowse (third-person singular simple present drowses, present participle drowsing, simple past and past participle drowsed)

1. (transitive) To make (someone or something) heavy with drowsiness or sleepiness.
   • Novv vvhen as vvine had drovvned and drouſed the underſtanding: vvhen the night ſeaſon, vvhen the entermingling of men and vvomen together one vvith another (and namely, they of young and tender yeeres, vvith thoſe of elder age) had cleane put out & extinguiſhed all reſpect and regard of ſhamefaſt...1600, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book XXXIX]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, pages 1027–1028
2. (transitive) Followed by away: to pass (time) drowsily or in sleeping; also, to proceed (on a way) drowsily or sleepily.
   • [T]he wary tadpole returned from exile, the bullfrog resumed his ancient song, the tranquil turtle sunned his back upon bank and log and drowsed his grateful life away as in the old sweet days of yore.1873, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, published 1874, →OCLC
3. (figuratively, transitive) To make (someone or something) dull or inactive, as if from sleepiness.
   • Then, father, I will lead your legions forth, / Compact in steeled squares, and speared files, / And bid our trumpets speak a fell rebuke / To nations drows'd in peace!a. 1822 (date written), John Keats, “[Tragedies.] Otho the Great: A Tragedy in Five Acts.”, in [Horace Elisha Scudder], editor, The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats, Cambridge...
4. (intransitive) Often followed by away or off: to be drowsy or sleepy; to be half-asleep.
   • He vvas […] Seene, but vvith ſuch eie / As ſicke and blunted vvith communitie, / Affoord no extraordinary gaze, / Such as is bent on ſu[n]-like maieſtie, / VVhen it ſhines ſeldome in admiring eies, / But rather drovvzed, and hung their eie-lids dovvn, / Slept in his face, and rendred ſuch aſpect /...c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]...
5. (figuratively, intransitive) To be dull or inactive, as if from sleepiness.
   • Ill huſbandry drowſeth at fortune ſo awke, / good huſbandry rowſeth him ſelfe like a hawke.1570, Thomas Tusser, “Comparing Good Husband with Vnthrift His Brother, the Better Descerneth the Tone from the Tother”, in A Hundrethe Good Pointes of Husbandrie, Lately Maried vnto a Hundrethe Good...

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