What does boused mean?
"Boused" is the past tense and past participle of "bouse" (also written "bowse"), an old verb meaning to drink deeply and noisily, to carouse. Common in the speech of sailors, soldiers, and tavern-goers from roughly the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, it described hearty, sociable drinking rather than mere consumption: a man who boused drank long, loud, and in company. The word is widely believed to have entered English from Low German or Dutch, which would make it an early relative of the modern word "booze." Today "boused" survives only in historical novels, nautical reminiscences, and dictionaries of slang, giving it a colorful, period flavor when revived in writing. Writers reaching for an evocative, old-fashioned way to say that someone drank hard might still find it useful precisely because of its rarity and its salty, convivial associations.
verb"Boused" is the past tense and past participle of "bouse" (also spelled "bowse"), an archaic and slang verb meaning to drink heavily or carouse.
- (of a person) drank heavily; caroused with alcohol (past tense of 'bouse')
"The sailors boused all night in the tavern before their ship sailed at dawn."
"The old tar boasted of how he had boused through every port between London and Lisbon."
"They boused so heartily at the wedding feast that few rose before noon the next day."
Before "booze" became the everyday word for alcohol, English sailors were already "bousing" their way through shore leave — likely borrowing it straight from Dutch drinking companions.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of boused
"Bouse" entered English in the sixteenth century, most likely from Low German or Dutch forms related to drinking (compare Dutch "buizen"). It circulated chiefly as sailors' and soldiers' slang, appearing in Elizabethan and later colloquial use alongside its variant spelling "bowse." The modern noun "booze" is generally regarded as deriving ultimately from the same Germanic source, making "boused" a distant cousin of today's everyday drinking vocabulary.
Related word forms
How boused is actually used
Archaic and now rare; found mainly in historical literature, nautical memoirs, and dialect writing from the 16th–19th centuries. It carries a rough, convivial connotation rather than a condemnatory one. Modern readers will encounter it almost exclusively in older texts.
Easily confused with boused
"Soused" means soaked in liquid or drunk, while "boused" specifically denotes heavy drinking in archaic or nautical slang.
"Bowed" means bent or curved, whereas "boused" refers to past heavy drinking.