rouses

Noun (1)

rouse (plural rouses)

1. An act of causing something to be (more) active or to move; a shakeup, a stir; also (chiefly US), a commotion, a disturbance.
   • At supper my grandfather took command of the table d'hôte as though he had been at home; […] In fact, he revolutionized the whole establishment, and gave it such a rouse, that the very house reeled with it.1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Bold Dragoon, or The Adventure of My Grandfather”, in Tales of a Traveller, part 1 (Strange Stories. […]), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry]...

   Synonyms:

   arousal, rouse-up, upheaval

2. Chiefly of a hawk: an act of shaking the feathers.
   • [K]ing Antiochus, vvho likened Hermogenes the famous Orator of Greece, vnto theſe fovvles in their moulting time, vvhen their feathers be ſick, and be ſo loaſe in the fleſh that at any little rovvſe they can eaſilie ſhake them off: ſo ſaith he, can Hermogenes of all the men that euer I knevv, as...1589, attributed to George Puttenham, “What It is that Generally Makes Our Speach Well Pleasing & Commendable, and of that which the Latines Call Decorum”, in The Arte of English Poesie. […], London...
3. (Canada, UK) Often in the form Rouse and preceded by the: the sounding of a call, usually on the bugle in the morning after reveille, to signal that soldiers are to rise from bed; also, the reveille.
   • Thus many a high-plumed gallant rear'd his head, / And proudly smote the ground with firmer tread, / Who did, ere close of ev'ning, lye / With ghastly face turn'd to the sky, / No more again the rouse of war to hear.1821, Joanna Baillie, “A Metrical Legend of William Wallace”, in Metrical Legends of Exalted Characters, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], →OCLC, stanza XXXVII, page 31

Noun (2)

rouse (plural rouses)

1. (archaic) A full or large cup or glass of an alcoholic beverage, especially when drunk as a toast; a bumper.
   • to give a rouse to take one’s rouse
2. (archaic) A social gathering at which alcoholic beverages are drunk; a drinking bout or party; a carousal.
   • No iocond health that Denmarke drinkes to day, / But the great Cannon to the cloudes ſhall tell. / And the Kings rovvſe the heauen ſhall brute againe, / Reſpeaking earthly thunder; come avvay.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604...

   Synonyms:

   carouse

See all 34 meanings of rouse