What does bouse mean?
"Bouse" (also spelled "bowse") is chiefly a nautical verb meaning to haul or hoist something by means of a tackle or block-and-purchase — to bouse up a spar, a cargo load, or an anchor by pulling on the falls of a purchase. The word belongs largely to the age of sail, and it appears mainly in maritime writing, seamanship manuals, and historical fiction rather than everyday speech. An older, now archaic sense links it to heavy drinking: sailors were said to bouse when they went on a drinking spree, and the noun could denote such a bout itself. That sense connects it to related drinking words like "booze" and "carouse", though the exact relationship between the hauling and drinking senses is not firmly settled. For modern readers, "bouse" is a colorful period term — useful for evoking the physical labor of tall ships, but rare enough that context must carry its meaning. When clarity matters, ordinary words like "haul" or "hoist" are safer choices.
To haul or hoist by means of a tackle or purchase, especially aboard ship.
"They boused the longboat up over the side with the yard tackle."
Chiefly nautical and historical; often found in the phrasal form "bouse up".
(Archaic or dialectal) A drinking bout; heavy drinking.
"The whole mess kept up a bouse that lasted three days."
Obsolete in standard modern usage; encountered mainly in older literature.
Applies only to the archaic noun sense meaning a drinking bout; the verb takes no plural.
"The tavern saw more bouses in one winter than most towns see in a decade."
Before it meant hauling ropes on a warship, "bouse" was sailor's slang for going on a drunken binge.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bouse
"Bouse" first appears in English in the sixteenth century, in both nautical and drinking senses. Its ultimate origin is uncertain; it has been connected with Dutch "buysen" (to drink heavily), which would link it to the family of English "booze" and "carouse". The nautical hauling sense may be a distinct development or a transferred use of the same word. It is commonly spelled "bowse" in older texts, and both forms remain accepted variants.
Related word forms
How bouse is actually used
"Bouse" today survives almost exclusively in nautical and historical contexts, and its spelling varies freely with "bowse". The drinking sense is archaic or dialectal and will strike most modern readers as obsolete; use it only with awareness that many readers may not know the word at all.
Easily confused with bouse
"Browse" means to survey goods casually or feed on vegetation, whereas "bouse" is a nautical term meaning to haul with a tackle.
"Bowse" is simply a variant spelling of "bouse" carrying the same meanings, rather than a separate word.