subs. (old).—(1) A large glass full of liquor; a big bumper; (2) a carouse.
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, i. 4. The king doth wake to-night, and take his ROUSE.
1609. JONSON, Epicœne, or the Silent Woman, iii. 2. We will have a ROUSE in each of them.
1609. DEKKER, The Guls Horne-booke. Teach me, you sovereign skinker, how to take the German’s upsy-freeze, the Danish ROUZA, the Switzer’s stoop of Rhenish.
1618. DRAYTON, Verses in CHAPMAN’S Hesiod. To fetch deep ROUSES from Jove’s plenteous cup.
1618. FLETCHER, The Loyal Subject, iv. 5.
| Archas. Take the ROUSE freely; | |
| ’Twill warm your blood, and make you fit for jollity. | |
| Ibid. (1624), A Wife for a Month, ii. 6. | |
| We’ll have a ROUSE before we go to bed, friends. |
c. 1609. J. HEALEY, The Discovery of a New World, 84.
| Gone is my flesh, yet thirst lies in the bone: | |
| Giue me one ROUSE my friend, and get thee gone. |
1623. MASSINGER, The Duke of Milan, i. 1.
| Your lord, by his patent, | |
| Stands bound to take his ROUSE. |
1842. TENNYSON, The Vision of Sin.
| Fill the cup, and fill the can: | |
| Have a ROUSE before the morn. |
3. (thieves’).—See quot.
1888. Evening Standard, 26 Dec. If the constable did not allow him to go to the station in a cab he would ROUSE (a slang term for fighting).
