What does carouse mean?
To carouse is to take part in lively, noisy festivities centered on heavy drinking — to revel, toast, sing, and celebrate with abandon. The word is a verb, though it also survives as a rare noun meaning a bout of drunken merriment. It typically describes group celebration rather than solitary drinking, and its tone is vivid and slightly literary, evoking taverns, feasts, and soldiers or students on a spree. Depending on context it can be affectionately nostalgic or mildly disapproving, suggesting excess and lost inhibition. The word entered English from French, ultimately tracing back to a German drinking phrase meaning roughly "drink it all up," which gives it a fittingly convivial pedigree.
To drink plentifully and engage in boisterous merrymaking; to revel noisily.
"They caroused in the tavern until the small hours."
Usually used without an object; often paired with expressions of time such as "all night."
(Archaic or literary) A bout or session of drunken revelry; a carousal.
"The night ended in a wild carouse that woke the whole inn."
This nominal use is now rare; "carousal" is the more common noun form.
Very rare; the noun form "carouses" is seldom used in modern English, with "carousals" preferred for multiple bouts of revelry.
"His youthful carouses were long forgotten by his sober middle age."
"Carouse" comes from an old German drinking toast meaning "completely drained" — so every time you carouse, you're literally wishing your glass empty.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of carouse
Carouse entered English in the mid-sixteenth century from French "carrouser" (to drink deeply), which itself derives from the German phrase "gar aus," meaning "quite out" or "entirely finished" — a call to drain one's cup completely. The word's history as a drinking term is therefore baked into its very origin, and its derivative "carousal" preserves the sense of a single session of revelry.
Related word forms
How carouse is actually used
The word carries a vivid, slightly literary or old-fashioned flavor; it often appears in narrative or historical writing rather than casual speech. It can imply good-natured festivity or, depending on context, excessive and disreputable behavior.
Easily confused with carouse
A carousel is a rotating amusement ride or luggage conveyor, while carouse is a verb meaning to drink and revel boisterously.