▪ I. boozing, vbl. n.
(ˈbuːzɪŋ)
[f. booze v. + -ing1.]
Deep drinking, toping.
| a 1529 [see bousing vbl. n.] 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum. iv. (1858) 207 That club and coffee-house boozing. 1868 Geo. Eliot F. Holt 119 Extension of the suffrage can never mean anything for them but extension of boozing. |
b. attrib. and in comb. (Cf. bousing.)
| 1824–9 Landor Imag. Conv. (1846) I. 45 In a boozing-bout, such as some country gentlemen I could mention do hold after dinner. 1873 C. Reade Simpleton xxviii, Down a filthy close into some boozing ken—I beg pardon, some thieves' public-house. |
▪ II. ˈboozing, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That drinks deeply, addicted to drinking.
| 1569 [see bousing ppl. a.] 1770 Month. Rev. 73 The boozing companions of old Sir John. 1880 J. C. Watt Gt. Novelists 30 Those ‘boosing’ coteries. 1882 L. Stephen Swift ii. 26 The boozing fox-hunting squires. |