Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) to drink, usu. alcohol (but see cite 1575); thus bousing n.

1548		Doctour Dubble Ale n.p.: And ther wyll byb and bouse / Tyll heuy be his brouse.
c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 84: to bowse, to drynke.
1566		T. Becon A new postil 151: [A] great parte geue them selues to bousyng and bybbyng in tyme of the sermon, and regard it not.
c.1567		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours (2 edn) 13: O how the pottes [i.e. drunkards] walke about, their talkīg tounges talke at large. They howle and bowse one to another.
1571		T. Fortescue [trans.] Collection of histories 132: Thei estemed it a fault so greate and ignominious, to sée a woman bouse, or drinke wine.
1575		G. Turberville Booke of faulconrie or hauking 245: [B]eare your Hawke to the water, or [...] offer hir a bason of water, to trie whether she wil bowze or no.
1581		B. Batt The Christian mans closet 36: [T]hey [i.e. employers] suffer them [i.e. servants] to raunge héere and there, from Alehouse to Tauerne, gulling, gurmandizing and bowsing, tippling and quaffing, dauncing and frisking.
1589		Mar-Martine n.p.: And if his horseplay like him well, of such he shall haue store. / He thus bumfeges his bousing mates.
1592		Nashe Pierce Pennilesse 67: The vintners, ale-wives, and victuallers, who surmise, if there were no Playes, they should haue all the companie that resort to them, lye bowzing and beere-bathing in their houses euery after-noon.
1592		T. Lodge Rosalynde n.p.: [H]ee that hath been once poisoned, and afterwards fears not to bowse of euery potion, is worthy to suffer double pennance.
1599		I.B. A looking glasse of mortalitie 29: I mispent my golden time [...] in dauncing and dallying, in dicing and carding, in bibbing and bousing [...] and a thousand other such villaines.
1601		Marston Jacke Drums Entertainment Act I: Why cannot you come where headie liquore is, but you must needs bouze?
1606		Erasmus Seven dialogues [trans.] n.p.: [D]rincking and bowsing in ale-houses, and whore houses.
1612		Dekker Canting Song O per se O O2: Ben bowse thou shalt Bowse thy fill.
1613		Beaumont & Fletcher Coxcomb II ii: Come, prithee, let’s shog off, and bouse an hour or two.
a.1618		J. Harington Epigrams IV No. 19: Yet such the fashion is of Bacchus crue, / To quaffe and bowse, vntil they belch and spue.
1622		Beaumont & Fletcher Beggar’s Bush II i: Except you do provide me hum enough, / And lour to bouze with.
1638		R. Brathwait Barnabees Journal III Q7: Having boldly thus adventur’d, / And my Sara’s socket enter’d, / Her I sued, suited, sorted, / Bussed, bouzed, sneezed, snorted.
1639		J. Taylor Crabree Lectures 191: Cove. I whid to thee: I budged to the bowsing Ken, & there I bowsed all my lower amongst the Beane Coves, and Doxes.
1641		R. Brome Jovial Crew II i: Here, safe in our Skipper, let’s cly off our Peck, / And bowse in defiance o’ the Harman-Beck.
1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II 321: Poor Panurge bibbed and bowsed of it most villainously.
a.1661		‘A Medley’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 252: One that can comply with Crosier and with Crown; / And yet can bouze / A full carouze, / While bottles tumble down.
1665		‘R.M.’ Scarronides 7: We [...] Ope our Town-Gates, Frolick, and Bouse Drink Sherry, in full Carouse.
1669		‘The Politick Drinker’ in Antidote against Melancholy 86: It is a mad zeal for a man to Reveal / His secret thoughts when he Bouze.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Bowse [...] to Drink.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 203: [...] We bowsed about, that is, we drank hard.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy III 146: It is a mad zeal for a Man to reveal, / His secret thoughts when he bouses.
1724		‘Frisky Moll’s Song’ in J. Thurmond Harlequin Sheppard 23: A Famble, a Tattle, and two Popps, / Had my Boman when he was ta’en; / But had he not Bowz’d in the Diddle Shops, / He’d still been in Drury-Lane.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) I 207: And all day long / They bowz’d about, and had a song.
1787		Burns Tam O’Shanter in Works (1842) 98/1: We sit bousing at the nappy, An’ gettin’ fou and unco happy.
1793		Sporting Mag. June II 164/1: Bowzy, from whence undoubtedly our English word to bowse [...] to drink heartily.
a.1796		‘Whistle O’er the Lave O’t’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) IV 275: We’ll bouse about , till Daddie Care / Sings whistle o’er the lave o’t.
c.1800		Burns ‘Tweedmouth Town’ Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 195: Who seldom used to tope an’ bouse, / An’ seldom wagged their tale.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 99: To bouse or bowze. To drink.
1829		Life & Death of Robert Kirkwood 6: Others clubbed their three bawbees for gill after gill, and sat bousing till all was done.
1848		J.C. Cooper Jack Tier (1852) I 10: No man is worse for bowsing out his jib when off duty, though i despise a drunkard.
1850		(con. 1843) Melville White-Jacket (1990) 35: So far as his efficiency as a sea-officer was concerned, on shore at least Jack might bouse away as much as he pleased; but afloat it will not do at all.
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 29: ‘Come, Cringy,’ said Murphy, removing the liquor, ‘you have bowsed up your jib enough for one day. Take us over the bar, and you shall have a bottle of brandy for your wives.’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 405: Bowsing nowt but claretwine.