carouse

1 of 2

verb

ca·​rouse kə-ˈrau̇z How to pronounce carouse (audio)
caroused; carousing

intransitive verb

1
: to drink liquor freely or excessively
2
: to take part in a carouse : engage in dissolute behavior

transitive verb

obsolete : to drink up : quaff
carouser noun

carouse

2 of 2

noun

1
: a drunken revel
2
archaic : a large draft of liquor

Did you know?

Sixteenth-century English revelers toasting each other's health sometimes drank a brimming mug of booze straight to the bottom—drinking an "all-out," they called it. German tipplers did the same and used the German expression for "all out"—gar aus. The French adopted the German term as carous, using the adverb in their expression boire carous ("to drink all out"). That phrase, with its idiomatic sense of "to empty the cup," led to carrousse, a French noun meaning "a large draft of liquor." And that's where English speakers picked up carouse in the 1500s, using it first as a direct borrowing of the French noun, which later took on the sense of a general "drunken revel," and then as a verb meaning "to drink freely." The verb later developed the "rowdy partying" use familiar to us today.

Examples of carouse in a Sentence

Verb My brother and his friends went out carousing last night. spent all of shore leave carousing with his mates Noun the Old West custom of heading to the saloon at night for an all-out carouse and some poker playing
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Verb
From there, a series of scenes — a late-night house party full of adults drinking and carousing, a cascade of tinsel falling off a Christmas tree, a playground fail — replicate a you-are-there feeling as a preadolescent named Elwood Curtis navigates the agonies and ecstasies of boyhood. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 12 Dec. 2024 Serving guests, some of them still carousing from the previous evening out, was never enough. Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman, 19 July 2024 While more of a household name in Great Britain, Wakeman’s ethereal-sorcerer persona onstage was matched in his heyday for barroom carousing and insolvency. Jordan Hoffman, Vulture, 10 Oct. 2024 Befitting the times, the album sessions were reportedly carousing affairs. David Browne, Rolling Stone, 14 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for carouse 

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle French carrousse, from carous, adverb, all out (in boire carous to empty the cup), from German gar aus

First Known Use

Verb

1566, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Noun

1559, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Time Traveler
The first known use of carouse was in 1559

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Dictionary Entries Near carouse

Cite this Entry

“Carouse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/carouse. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

carouse

noun
ca·​rouse
kə-ˈrau̇z
: a drunken merrymaking
carouse verb
carouser noun

More from Merriam-Webster on carouse

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