▪ I. drowse, v.
(draʊz)
Also 6–7 drouze, 6–9 drowze, 7 drouse.
[In current use appears in 1573: perh. a back-formation from drowsy, which is found earlier; perh. identical with OE. dr{uacu}sian, to sink, become low, slow, or inactive, a derivative from the ablaut series dreus-, draus-, drus-, OE. dréosan to fall down; but the non-appearance of the verb for 600 years leaves this uncertain.]
† 1. intr. (OE.) To sink, droop, become slow.
| Beowulf (Th.) 3265 Laᵹu drusade. a 1000 Cynewulf Elene (Gr.) 1258 Cen drusende. a 1000 Phœnix (Cod. Ex.) 368 He drusende deað ne bisorᵹað. |
2. intr. To be drowsy; to be heavy or dull with or as with sleep; to be half asleep. Also with away, off.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 81 [They] drowz'd, and hung their eye-lids downe, Slept in his Face. 1666 Pepys Diary (1879) III. 447, I could not hold my eyes open for an houre, but I drowsed..but I anon wakened. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 131 More wakeful then to drouze. 1853 Tait's Mag. XX. 615 Drowsing and dreaming with half-open eye. 1886 W. W. Story Fiammetta ii. 39 He..now and then drowsed away into a half sleep. 1908 Smart Set Sept. 101/2, I must have drowsed off. |
3. fig. To be or grow inactive, dull, or sluggish.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. lxii. (1878) 140 Ill husbandry drowseth at fortune so auke: Good husbandrie rowseth himselfe as a hauke. a 1679 W. Outram Serm. (1682) 455 The minds of men would drowze and slumber. 1847 Tennyson Princ. ii. 318 Let not your prudence..drowse. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home (1879) 56 Leamington The Leam..drowsing across the principal street beneath a handsome bridge. |
4. trans. To render drowsy; to make heavy, dull, or inactive, as with sleep.
| 1600 Holland Livy xxxix. viii. 1027 When as wine had drowned and droused the understanding. 1614 Sylvester Bethulia's Rescue vi. 101 The Fume of his aboundant Drink, Drouzing his Brain. 1819 Keats Otho v. v, Nations drows'd in peace! 1881 B. Webber In Luck's Way i. i, Any birds which the heat has not utterly drowsed. |
5. To pass away (time) drowsily or in drowsing.
| 1843 Lefevre Life Trav. Phys. III. iii. xii. 255 To drowse away the mornings. 1875 Browning Inn Album i. 171 Don't I drowse The week away down with the Aunt and Niece? |
Hence drowsed ppl. a., ˈdrowsing vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also ˈdrowser.
| 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 557 The lesser snatches of Rest and Drowsings. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 289 Gentle sleep..with soft oppression seis'd My droused sense. 1796 Coleridge Relig. Musings 34 The drowsed Soul. 1881 T. Hardy Laodicean ii. iii, The drowsing effects of the last night's sitting. 1887 M. B. Edwards Next of Kin Wanted I. viii. 110 Unwary drowsers were severely castigated from the pulpit. |
▪ II. drowse, n.
[f. prec. vb.]
The action of drowsing; a fit of drowsing; the state of being half asleep.
| 1814 Prophetess III. i, Men are seiz'd with most unnat'ral drowze. a 1851 Moir Poems, Tomb of De Bruce iii, Shaking the fetters away, which in drowse she had worn. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh vi. 593. 1859 Tennyson Enid 1121 Many a voice along the street..burst Their drowse. |
| fig. 1854–6 Patmore Angel in Ho. ii. ii. (1866) 259 The wealthy wheat Bends in a golden drowse. |