or douse, verb (old).—1. A verb of action.—See quots.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. DOWSE your dog vane = take the cockade out of your hat. DOWSE the glim = put out the candle. DOWSE on the chops = a blow in the face.
1815. SCOTT, Guy Mannering. DOWSE the glim!
1860. Punch, vol. XXXVIII., p. 252. ‘The Death and Burial of Poor Little Bill.’
| And who’ll put on mourning? | |
| ‘Not we,’ said the House, | |
| ‘The Reform Flag we’ll DOUSE— | |
| But we won’t put on mourning!’ |
1863. C. READE, Hard Cash, I., 212. At nine P.M. all the lights were ordered out. Mrs. Beresford had brought a novel on board and refused to comply;… The master-at-arms, finding he had no chance in argument, DOUSED THE GLIM—pitiable resource of a weak disputant—then basely fled the rhetorical consequences.
