Word of the Day: Rouse

rouse

rouse / rouz

noun

1. the act of awakening or provoking or a signal to get up

At last this remark of his gave me a sudden rouse.

From “The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut” by Mark Twain, pen name of Samuel Clemens, 1835 – 1910

2. (obsolete) an alcoholic beverage

‘Fore heaven, they have given me a rouse already.

From “Othello” by William Shakespeare, 1564 – 1616

3. (archaic) a wild, drunken party or celebration

They will not budge, these Revellers of the race of Furies; they sit late, their drunken rouse The original sin.

From “Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides” by Aeschylus, c. 525 BC – c. 456 BC

verb

1. to stimulate, to stir up; to provoke

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage.

William Ellery Channing, 1780 – 1842

2. to awaken

One who does not rouse themself when it is time to rise, who, though capable, is full of sloth, whose will and thought are weak, that lazy and idle person will never find their way to true knowledge.

Gautama Buddha, 567 BC – 484 BC