Green’s Dictionary of Slang

drinking; usu. attrib.; see also boozing n.

1600		Tom Tel-troths Message 41: One other mate she hath call’d Dronkennesse, A bibbing swilbowle and a bowzing gull.
1611		Davies of Hereford Scourge of Folly 8: Against bouzing Bossus the woman-queller.
1641		R. Brome Jovial Crew II ii: The autem mort find better sport / In bowsing than in niggling.
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 12 16–23 Aug. 109: There you may see [...] Smoking and Whoring, Cozening and cheating, Bowsing and Eating.
1673		M. Stevenson Norfolk Drollery 83: There where your eye-sore Mare turn’d taile, / Upon the bowsing Tub of Ale.
1691		‘In Praise of Chocolate’ in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 49: The thriving Saint, that will not come / Within a sack-shops bouzing Room.
1793		Sporting Mag. June II 164/1: We never say of a man who is used to drink wine in large quantites, that he is a bowsing fellow, but only of a strong ale or beer drinker.
c.1800		‘Tweedmouth Town’ Burns Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 195: Nine northern lads with their Scots plaid [...] All nine-inch men, to a bousing came.