Chiefly naut. Also 8 bowss. [Of unknown origin: confounded in the dictionaries generally with BOUSE v.1 = booze: but this rhymes with house.] trans. To haul with tackle. Also absol.
1593. Sir F. Drake Rev., in Arb., Garner, V. 497. Felling of great trees; bowsing and hauling them together, with great pulleys and hawsers.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., iii. 36. The Younkers are the young men … for slinging the yards, bousing or trising.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), To Bowse, to draw on any body with a tackle … This is pronounced bowce.
1816. Scott, Antiq., viii. As we used to bouse up the kegs o’ gin.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xiii. We boused out our gun.
1868. Wood, Homes without H., xiv. 297. The nautical method of ‘bowsing’ up a rope.
b. transf.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic., xiv. (D.). Pshaw! brother, there’s no occasion to bowss out so much unnecessary gum [i.e., palaver].
c. To bowse up the jib (fig.): to drink heavily, to make oneself ‘tight.’
1837. Marryat, Dog Fiend, ix. It won’t do to bowse your jib up too tight here … for it’s rather dangerous navigation among all these canals. Ibid. (1840), Poor Jack, xxii. The captain used to bowse his jib up pretty taut every night.
