▪ I. booze, boose, n. colloq.
(buːz)
Also 8 booz.
[f. booze v.; = bouse n.]
1. a. Drink; a draught.
| 1732 Mrs. Pendarves Lett. 30 Mar. in Mrs. Delany's Corr. I. 346 We..had a profusion of ‘peck & booz’ (terms for meat & drink). |
b. Alcoholic drink, chiefly beer; U.S. esp. spirits.
| 1859 Hotten Dict. Slang. 1895 Daily Tel. 2 Dec. 5/1 She heard some men shout that they wanted some more booze. Mr. Justice Wright: ‘What?’ Mr. Willis: ‘Booze, my lord, drink.’ Mr. Justice Wright: ‘Ah!’ 1896 Voice (N.Y.) 16 July 1/6 The Duckworth club..consumed large quantities of booze. 1900 Daily News 8 Dec. 6/2 On his way home he drops into a pub, and gets some ‘booze’. 1932 T. S. Eliot Sweeney Agonistes 30 We're gona sit here and drink this booze. |
c. attrib. and Comb.
| 1895 Voice (N.Y.) 9 May 5/4 Lost souls—lost through the booze traffic. 1922 H. L. Foster Adv. Trop. Tramp v. 60 After that the police had a private booze-party of their own on the proceeds. 1934, 1941 [see artist 10]. |
2. a. Drinking, a drinking bout.
| 1864 Burton Scot Abr. II. ii. 198 An occasional hard boose, and its consequent headache. 1877 Baring-Gould Myst. Suffering 51 A booze of bad ale. 1884 St. James's Gaz. 19 Dec. 4/1 There was a great ‘booze’ on board. |
b. Phr. on the booze: having a spell of hard drinking.
| 1850 H. Halse Let. 26 Nov. in McLean Papers (MS., Wellington, N.Z.) VIII. 271 The sawyers who were to have got the board out of the bush, had been on the boose. 1888 E. W. Payton Round about N.Z. xxiii. 306 The man..often does not know..how long he has been ‘on the booze’. 1889 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms I. ii. 20 Poor old Mr. Howard wasn't always on the booze. 1892 Heslop Northumberland Words I. 82 ‘He's on the booze’—that is, he has a drinking fit. 1946 F. Sargeson That Summer 31 He was a bit of a one for going on the booze, Bill was. 1959 J. Cary Captive & Free 96 If I didn't you'd go on the booze and say it was all my fault. |
c. booze-hound, a drunkard; booze-up, a drinking bout. slang.
| 1926 Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Slang 23 Hound (as in booze-hound, smut-hound, etc.), one fond of a thing. 1947 K. Tennant Lost Haven i. 19 This ruddy old booze-hound. |
| 1897 Session Paper 26 Oct. 860 We..had a booze up together. 1939 I. Brown Down on Farm in Best One-Act Plays of 1939 131 We're celebrating... So we're going to have what the vulgar call..a bit of a booze-up. 1957 J. Braine Room at Top x. 91 The traditional lunchtime booze-up. |
▪ II. booze, boose, v.
(buːz)
[A variant of bouse, retaining the pronunciation of ME. bouse, bowse, and spelt phonetically; perhaps really a dialectal form: cf. the Sc. and north. Eng. rooze (ruːz) = literary Eng. rouse, etc. See bouse.]
intr. To drink deeply, or for the sake of enjoyment or goodfellowship; to tipple, guzzle, bezzle.
| [c 1300 E.E.P. (1862) 154 Depe can ȝe bouse. 1616 Pasquil & Kath. i. 213 You must needs bouze.] 1768 Walpole Lett. H. Mann, To booze ale. 1777 Colman Epil. Sch. Scandal (1883) 76 While good Sir Peter boozes with the squire. 1823 Byron Juan xi. xix. Who..like Tom..could Booze in the ken? 1854 Thackeray Newcomes I. 39, I won't sit in the kitchen and boose in the servants' hall. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 30 With few resources but to boose around the fire. |