towser, n.
(ˈtaʊzə(r))
Also 7 towzer, touzer, 9 touser.
[f. touse v. + -er1; with senses c, d, e cf. thumper, whopper, etc.]
One who or that which touses. a. (With capital T). A common name for a large dog, such as was used to bait bears or bulls; also transf. of a person.
| 1678 Otway Friendship in F. iv. i, Fresh Game; that great Towser has started it already. 1681 Trial S. Colledge 59 Mr. Char...it was the Pictures of the Tantivies and the Towzer [Roger L'Estrange]. 1681 T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 30 (1713) I. 197 Earn. What Papers? Did he mean the Towzers, and the Gallows, and the Broom, for which he was so famous? 1682 N. N. (title) The Heu and Cry: or, a Relation of the Travels of the Devil and Towzer, Through all the Earthly Territorys, and the Infernal Region. 1684 Otway Atheist iii. i, Never was seen so termagant a Towzer. 1696 tr. Du Mont's Voy. Levant 257 Poor Towzer was condemn'd to be Cudgel'd to Death. 1881 A. M{supc}Lachlan in Mod. Sc. Poets II. 261 Ahint him Towser wags his tail. |
† b. The five of trumps in the game of gleek.
Obs.| 1680 Cotton Compl. Gamester vi. (ed. 2) 65 The fifth [is called] Towser, the sixth Tumbler, which if in hand Towser is five and Tumbler six, and so double if turn'd up. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. xvi. (Roxb.) 73/2 Towser, is the fifth of the trumps. |
† c. A large ship.
Obs. d. A large coarse apron.
dial. e. A rough or energetic person.
dial.| c. 1690 Pagan Prince xxix. 81 Now the Belgians, having lost..some three or four more of their biggest Towzers, made all the Sail they could to their own Coasts. |
| d. 1865 R. Hunt Pop. Rom. W. Eng. Ser. ii. 244 The Touser is a large apron or wrapper to come quite round and keep the under⁓garments clean. 1882 Jago Cornw. Gloss., Touser, a large coarse apron for kitchen use. |
| e. 1901 E. Phillpotts Striking Hours 222 A wonnerful bowerly maid her was, an' a towser for work, an' 'mazin' even-tempered tu. 1901 R. M. F. Watson Closeburn xiii. 221 A certain big, uncouth, unhallowed ‘towser’ named Tibbie Murdoch. |
Hence
ˈtowser, -zer v. trans. (
nonce-wd.), to worry as a dog does.
| c 1680 Hickeringill Hist. Whiggism i. Wks. 1716 I. 37 If they get a piece of a Text by the end..they do so tear it, and towze it, and towzer it..that they lose themselves. |