Also 8 souce, 9 sowse. [f. SOUSE sb.1 or v.1] With a sudden or deep plunge.
1706–7. Farquhar, Beaux’ Strat., V. iii. Now … all our fair Machine goes souse into the Sea like the Edistone.
1838. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. I. Hand of Glory. Into Tappington mill-dam souse she goes.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. VI. viii. 261. As he flounders about, out tumbles the book; he lets go his staff, and makes after it; and souse he goes, over head and ears in a twinkling.
1882. Serjt. Ballantine, Exper., xxxiii. Just as he was stepping on board, souse he went into the sea.
fig. 1749. Cleland, Mem. Woman Pleasure (1894), 2. I go souce into my personal history.
1760. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, II. xii. 51. Here have you got us … souse into that old subject again.
1824. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1825), 129. Into all sorts of subjects, both known and unknown, Mr. Hume goes what one may call souse.
1872. Browning, Fifine, lxv. Foiled by the very effort, sowse, Underneath ducks the soul!
