What does bowsed mean?
"Bowsed" is the past tense and past participle of "bowse" (also spelled "bouse"), an English verb with two distinct senses rooted in maritime life. Its best-known meaning is to drink heavily or carouse — a sense that flourished in British naval slang of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when sailors fresh off a voyage might be said to have "bowsed" riotously in port taverns. A second, more technical sense means to haul or hoist something using a tackle or purchase, a usage still found in nautical contexts. The word is now archaic or dialectal, appearing mainly in historical fiction and accounts of seafaring life rather than everyday speech. Because it sounds exactly like "browsed," readers may misread it at first glance, but its meaning belongs firmly to the world of rum rations and rigging. For anyone interested in colorful period vocabulary, "bowsed" offers a vivid glimpse into the language of the age of sail.
verbPast tense and past participle of "bowse" (also spelled "bouse"): to drink heavily or carouse, especially in nautical slang; by extension, to haul or hoist with a tackle.
- To drink heavily; to carouse (past tense of bowse), especially among sailors.
- To haul or hoist using a bowse (a tackle or purchase), as in nautical usage.
"After months at sea, the sailors bowsed heartily in the port taverns until dawn."
"The old hands bowsed together in the dockside tavern after the voyage ended."
"The crew bowsed up the cargo with a double tackle."
Before it meant anything else, to "bowse" was what sailors did ashore — drinking hard enough that the word itself became part of the rigging vocabulary for heaving on a rope.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bowsed
The verb "bowse" entered English in the sixteenth century, likely from Dutch or Low German "buizen" (to drink heavily), reflecting the close linguistic exchange between English sailors and their continental counterparts. The spelling varied widely — "bouse," "bowse," and "booze"-adjacent forms circulated in early modern texts — before settling into dialectal use. It remains related in spirit, though not directly in origin, to modern "boose" and "booze."
Related word forms
How bowsed is actually used
"Bowse" and its inflected form "bowsed" are archaic or dialectal today, surviving chiefly in historical fiction and nautical literature. It was common in 18th- and 19th-century British naval slang, where both the drinking sense and the hauling sense were current.
Easily confused with bowsed
"Browsed" means to skim or read casually (or to feed on vegetation), while "bowsed" refers to heavy drinking or hauling with a tackle — they sound nearly identical but share nothing in meaning.
"Dowsed" means to drench or extinguish, whereas "bowsed" means to drink heavily or hoist with a tackle.