Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use douse in a sentence

24 example sentences · verb, noun

Douse means to plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse. Example: “Douse the topsail!”

Examples of douse by meaning

verbTo 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
  • 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

nounA 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

verbTo strike or lower in haste; to slacken suddenly.

  • Douse the topsail!

More sentences with douse

  • The guy who came upon the accident scene was my guardian angel. He doused the flames and called the paramedics.From the entry guardian angel
  • Drakkar Noir, however, was not the kind of fragrance you would want to douse yourself with.2011 November 3, Ta-Nehisi Coates, quoting shamu1 (Il Mondo di Odore), “Marketing to the Maxim Set, Cont.”, in The Atlantic, archived from…. From the entry fougère
  • Once the last villagers had left Ben Suc, the buildings were doused with petrol and zippoed.2009, Nigel Cawthorne, Vietnam. From the entry zippo
  • Arson, like we thought. three punks doused a car, lit it, and took off.2006, Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Killer Smile, Part two, p.34. From the entry arson
  • Around eight I stopped feeding the fire and started carrying coffeepotfuls of water to douse the ashes.1999, Joseph Monninger, “The North Platte”, in Home Waters: Fishing with an Old Friend, San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, →ISBN…. From the entry coffeepotful
  • Then douse flames with 1 quart boiling water, stir and serve pronto in glass or silver mugware.1953, Esquire’s Handbook for Hosts, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, page 171. From the entry mugware
  • Douse; she was a chieftainess in her own right, and had great dignity.1941, Emily Carr, chapter 20, in Klee Wyck. From the entry chieftainess
  • It was called pizzowego (pizzarogis), a pieróg filled with a combination of sausage, pepperoni, and cheese, doused with tomato sauce.2019 September, Geraldine Balut Coleman, “Tekla Klebetnica Thrills Crowds”, in Polish American Journal, volume 108, number 9, section…. From the entry pieróg
  • “Safety reasons,” she snorts, dousing herself recklessly with borrowed floods of her mother’s deluxest perfume, thinking again of Mr.2005, Barry Yourgrau, NASTYbook, Joanna Cotler Books, →ISBN, page 101. From the entry deluxe
  • This Jambalaya is not a sauce-y dish—it cooks dry—and you need a salad doused in dressing to go with it.1953 December 28, Cecily Brownstone, “From New Orleans, A Creole Recipe For Shrimp Jambalaya”, in Daily Independent Journal, 93rd year…. From the entry sauce-y
  • The tortillas for the chalupas are cooked in pork lard on a charcoal-fired comal, and they get doused with salsa, shredded pork, and onions.2021 December 6, Hannah Albertine, Nikko Duren, Carlo Mantuano, “NYC’s Best New Dishes Of 2021”, in The Infatuation. From the entry chalupa
  • Mr Thorneycroft, 43, doused deadly embers while 20 women and children sheltered in the Kinglake National Park Hotel coolroom with their pets.2009 February 16, Cheryl Critchley, “He did it for the kids”, in Herald Sun, archived from the original on 18 Feb 2009. From the entry coolroom
  • Though neither I nor my tripmates could tolerate full-body attire during Cambodia’s humid, 90-plus-degree days, we all doused ourselves daily with repellent.2008 May 13, Jane E. Brody, “Mosquito Thrives; So Does Dengue Fever”, in New York Times. From the entry tripmate
  • Next she doused the smouldering troll with the contents of the restaurant's fire extinguisher, hoping the icy powder wouldn't revive the sleeping behemoth.2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 58. From the entry behemoth
  • Douse was more important than Mr.1941, Emily Carr, chapter 20, in Klee Wyck. From the entry chieftainess
  • The Han make it with long-braised pork, doused with a spoonful of its own broth, and the Hui with beef or lamb, stewed, then salted and dried.2020 May 11, Ligaya Mishan, “Eating in Xi’an, Where Wheat and Lamb Speak to China’s Varied Palette”, in The New York Times, archived from…. From the entry hui
  • This New Orleans classic takes the nutritious yellow-peeled fruit, drowns it in butter, smothers it with sugar, douses it with rum, and sets it on fire.2014, David Zinczenko, Matt Goulding, Cook This, Not That! Skinny Comfort Foods, New York, N.Y.: Galvanized Books, →ISBN. From the entry peeled
  • First he (Molotov) called on Göring at the Air Ministry where he asked Hitler's 'paladin' more embarrassing questions which the Reichmarschall simply doused with his pinguid heartiness.2003, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar, page 345. From the entry pinguid
  • "douse your head under the pump and wash some of the gaum off your hands and we'll see what your Aunt Debbie can do for that empty feelin'."1913, William Gerard Chapman, “Wine of the Orchard”, in Outing: Sport, Adventure, Travel Fiction, volume 61, page 210. From the entry gaum

Meaning of douse

  1. verb To plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse.
  2. verb To fall suddenly into water.
  3. verb To put out; to extinguish.

Full definition of douse

Questions about douse in a sentence

How do you use douse in a sentence?
Douse is used as a verb and noun. For example: “Douse the topsail!”
What is a short sentence with douse?
“Douse the topsail!”
What does douse mean?
Douse means to plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: douse (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use douse in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/douse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.