Word: drowse Part of Speech: verb Etymology: The verb is either: * a back-formation from drowsy, which is attested earlier; or * possibly from Middle English *drousen (no known attestations), from Old English drūsan, drūsian (“to droop, sink; to become feeble, inactive, low, or slow, drowse”), from Proto-Germanic *drūsijaną (“to look down; mourn”) (possibly merged with *dreusaną (“to fall”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewHs- (“to break off; to fall down”). The noun is derived from the verb. cognates * Danish drøse (“to be negligent; to slow down”) * Dutch drozen (“to doze; muse”) * German trauern (“to mourn, be sad”) * Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌹𐌿𐍃𐌰𐌽 (driusan, “to fall; to fall down”) * Norwegian døse (“to drowse”) * Old English drēosan (“to fall; to perish; to rush”) (whence Middle English dresen (“to fall down”)) * Swedish drösa (“to be slow”) Pronunciation: /ˈdɹaʊ̯z/, /ˈdɹæʊ̯z/, /ˈdɹaːz/ 1. To make (someone or something) heavy with drowsiness or sleepiness. Labels: transitive Example: Novv vvhen as vvine had drovvned and drouſed the underſtanding: vvhen the night ſeaſon, vvhen the entermingling of men and vvomen together one vvith another (and namely, they of young and tender yeeres, vvith thoſe of elder age) had cleane put out & extinguiſhed all reſpect and regard of ſhamefaſt honeſtie: there began firſt to be practiſed all ſorts of corruption, for every one had all pleaſures readie at commaundement, and his choiſe of thoſe vvhereto by nature he vvas more prone and given to luſt after. Example: But novv the Fume of his aboundant Drink, / Drouzing his Brain, beginneth to deface / The ſvveet remembrance of her lovely Face: […] 2. Followed by away: to pass (time) drowsily or in sleeping; also, to proceed (on a way) drowsily or sleepily. Labels: transitive Example: [T]he wary tadpole returned from exile, the bullfrog resumed his ancient song, the tranquil turtle sunned his back upon bank and log and drowsed his grateful life away as in the old sweet days of yore. Example: Why plague me who am pledged to home-delights? / I'm the engaged now: through whose fault but yours? / On duty. As you well know. Don't I drowse / The week away down with the Aunt and Niece? / No help: it's leisure, loneliness and love. 3. To make (someone or something) dull or inactive, as if from sleepiness. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: Then, father, I will lead your legions forth, / Compact in steeled squares, and speared files, / And bid our trumpets speak a fell rebuke / To nations drows'd in peace! Example: In a letter, however, to Lady Beaumont [Margaret, wife of Sir George Beaumont, 7th Baronet] of March, 1826, there is a passage which it is interesting to compare with the 'Work without Hope' ("All nature seems at work," &c.) composed just a year later. It is a prose version of those exquisite lines, with the addition of an acknowledgment that "the spell that drowsed his soul" was of his [Coleridge's] own conjuring. 4. Often followed by away or off: to be drowsy or sleepy; to be half-asleep. Labels: intransitive Example: He vvas […] Seene, but vvith ſuch eie / As ſicke and blunted vvith communitie, / Affoord no extraordinary gaze, / Such as is bent on ſu[n]-like maieſtie, / VVhen it ſhines ſeldome in admiring eies, / But rather drovvzed, and hung their eie-lids dovvn, / Slept in his face, and rendred ſuch aſpect / As cloudy men vſe to their aduerſaries / Being vvith his preſence glutted, gordge, and full. Example: [T]hen to my office again, where I could not hold my eyes open for an houre, but I drowsed (so little sensible I apprehend my soul is of necessity of minding business), but anon I wakened and minded my business, and did a great deale with very great pleasure, […] 5. To be dull or inactive, as if from sleepiness. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: Ill huſbandry drowſeth at fortune ſo awke, / good huſbandry rowſeth him ſelfe like a hawke. Example: Let not your prudence, dearest, drowse, or prove / The Danaïd of a leaky vase, for fear / This whole foundation ruin, and I lose / My honour, these their lives.