Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To wake (someone) up.
  • intransitive verb To cause (someone) to be active, attentive, or excited; stir up. synonym: provoke.
  • intransitive verb To give rise to; bring about.
  • intransitive verb To awaken.
  • intransitive verb To become active, attentive, or excited.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An arousing; a sudden start or movement, as from torpor or inaction; also, a signal for arousing or starting up; the reveille.
  • Same as roose.
  • To cause to start up by noise or clamor, especially from sleep; startle into movement or activity; in hunting, to drive or frighten from a lurking-place or covert.
  • To raise or waken from torpor or inaction by any means; provoke to activity; wake or stir up: said of animate beings.
  • To evoke a commotion in or about: said of inanimate things.
  • Hence To move or stir up vigorously by direct force; use energetic means for raising, stirring, or moving along. In this sense still sometimes written rowse.
  • To raise up; erect; rear; fix in an elevated position.
  • To put and turn over or work about in salt, as fish in the operation of rousing; roil.
  • Nautical, to haul heavily.
  • Synonyms and To animate, kindle, stimulate, provoke, stir up.
  • To start or rise up, as from sleep, repose, or inaction; throw off torpor or quietude; make a stir or movement.
  • To rise; become erect; stand up.
  • Nautical, to haul with great force, as upon a cable or the like.
  • To blow air through (the wort of beer) in order to aid in the development of the yeast.
  • As if suddenly aroused; rousingly; vehemently.
  • noun Wine or other liquor considered as an inducement to mirth or drunkenness; a full glass; a bumper.
  • noun Hence Noise; intemperate mirth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To cause to start from a covert or lurking place.
  • transitive verb To wake from sleep or repose.
  • transitive verb To excite to lively thought or action from a state of idleness, languor, stupidity, or indifference.
  • transitive verb To put in motion; to stir up; to agitate.
  • transitive verb obsolete To raise; to make erect.
  • verb (Naut.) To pull or haul strongly and all together, as upon a rope, without the assistance of mechanical appliances.
  • noun obsolete A bumper in honor of a toast or health.
  • noun A carousal; a festival; a drinking frolic.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To get or start up; to rise.
  • intransitive verb To awake from sleep or repose.
  • intransitive verb To be exited to thought or action from a state of indolence or inattention.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun an arousal
  • noun an official ceremony over drinks
  • noun military The sounding of a bugle in the morning after reveille, to signal that soldiers are to rise from bed, often the rouse.
  • verb to wake or be awoken from sleep, or from apathy
  • verb to provoke (someone) to anger or action
  • verb nautical To pull by main strength; to haul
  • verb obsolete To be excited to thought or action from a state of indolence or inattention.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb become active
  • verb cause to be agitated, excited, or roused
  • verb cause to become awake or conscious
  • verb force or drive out

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English rousen, to shake the feathers: used of a hawk, perhaps from Old French reuser, ruser, to repel, push back, from Vulgar Latin *recūsāre, from Latin, to refuse; see recuse.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English rowsen, rouzen, rusen ("to rush out"), from Old Norse *rūsa ("to storm out, rush"), from Proto-Germanic *rūsanan (“to bluster, be fierce, storm”), from Proto-Indo-European *(o)rewǝ- (“to move, drive, agitate”). Cognate with Swedish rusa ("to rush, hurry, dash, scurry"), Danish ruse ("to rush"), Middle Dutch rūsen ("to race, rage"), Middle Low German rūsen ("to rush, bluster, make a clamour"). More at rush.

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