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''carouse'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250817012816-00-⌔

carouse - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

carouse (third-person singular simple present carouses, present participle carousing, simple past and past participle caroused)

  • (intransitive) To engage in a noisy or drunken social gathering. [from 1550s]
    • ✤ Synonym: revel
    • ✤ We are all going to carouse at Brian’s tonight.
    • ✤ The prospect of two hundred (or more) loitering and carousing patrons streaming out of the club at 1 a.m. is profoundly disturbing to us.1
  • (intransitive or transitive) To drink to excess.
    • ✤ If I survive this headache, I promise no more carousing at Brian’s.
    • ✤ […] the cup-bearers did fill great gems made in form of cups with ancient wine, and the Demons caroused to Lord Juss deep draughts in honour of this day of his nativity.2

Noun

carouse (plural carouses)

  • A large draught of liquor.
    • ✤ […] therefore forward I went with my hey-de-gaies to Ilford, where I againe reſted, and was by the people of the towne and countrey there-about very very wel welcomed, being offred carowſes in the great ſpoon, one whole draught being able at that time to haue drawne my little wit drye; […]3
    • ✤ Had our great Pallace the capacity
      To Campe this hoaſt, we all would ſup together,
      And drinke Carowſes to the next dayes Fate […]      4
    • ✤ […] he hadde ſo many eyes watching ouer him, as he coulde not drinke a full Carouſe of Sacke, but the State was aduertised thereof, within few houres after.5
  • A drinking bout; a carousal.
    • ✤ The early feast and late carouse.6
    • ✤ PORSON […] would not only frequently “steal a few hours from the night,” but see out both lights and liquids, and seem none the worse for the carouse.7

Etymology

From Middle French carousser (“to quaff, drink, swill”), from German gar aus (literally “all out, quite out”), from gar austrinken (“to drink up entirely, guzzle”).8 Compare German Garaus.

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA: /kəˈɹaʊz/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -aʊz

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1986 February 15, John Cronin, “More To It Than Homophobia”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 31, page 5: ↩

  2. 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 7: ↩

  3. 1600, William Kempe, Kemps nine daies vvonder, pages 4–5: ↩

  4. c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene viii]: ↩

  5. 1612, John Davies, Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued: ↩

  6. 1725, Homer, “Book II”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC: ↩

  7. 1835, Richard Gooch, Oxford and Cambridge Nuts to Crack, page 25: ↩

  8. Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “carouse”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. ↩

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