touse

English

Alternative forms

• towze

Etymology

From Middle English tousen, tusen, from Old English *tūsian, from Proto-West Germanic *tūsōn. Cognate with German zausen (“to tousle”). Related also to English tease and toase.

Verb

touse (third-person singular simple present touses, present participle tousing, simple past and past participle toused)

1. (transitive) To rumple, tousle.
2. (transitive) To pull to pieces.
   • c. 1635–1636 (date written), Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], The Fancies, Chast and Noble: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] P[urslowe] for Henry Seile, […], published 1638, →OCLC, Act III, page 39:

     His tongue troules like a Mill-clack: a towzes the Lady ſiſters, as a tumbling Dog does young Rabets; […]

   • 1844, Robert Browning, "Garden Fancies," II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgennis:

     How did he like it when the live creatures

     Tickled and toused and browsed him all over,

     And worm, slug, eft, with serious features

     Came in, each one, for his right of trover?

Derived terms

• touser
• tousle

Noun

touse (plural touses)

1. a noisy disturbance

Anagrams

• use to