Forms: 6 karous, garouse, carous, 6–7 carrouse, car(r)owse, 7 garousse, carrowze, -ouze, 7–8 carowze, -ouze, 6– carouse. [f. CAROUSE adv.: cf. F. carousser ‘to quaff, swill, carouse it’ (Cotgr.).]
1. intr. To drink ‘all out,’ drink freely and repeatedly. So to carouse it.
1567. Drant, Horace Ep., xiv. I that in tune and out of time, karoust it without measure.
1596. Raleigh, Discov. Guiana (1848), 64. Some … garoused of his wine till they were reasonable pleasant.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 349. To quaffe and carouse again upon it more lustily.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Carouse … to drink all out.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. xv. 173. To procure Wine and carouze with him, which they did, and he got beastly drunk.
1779. Johnson, L. P., Thomson, Wks. IV. 167. Thomson … carousing with lord Hertford and his friends.
1827. Pollock, Course T., IV. Drinking from the well of life, And yet carousing in the cup of death.
1875. B. Taylor, Faust, I. vi. 102.
b. To drink a bumper to (any one), to drink health or success to.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus. (1877), I. 107. Swilling, gulling and carowsing from one to another.
1594. Lyly, Moth. Bomb., II. i. 92. I carouse to Prisius, and brinch you mas Sperantius.
1604. Shaks., Ham., V. ii. 300 (2nd Qo.). The Queene Carowses [1st Qo. drinkes] to thy fortune Hamlet.
† 2. trans. To drink off or up, to drain, to quaff, to swill; to drink (a health). Obs.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 432. The Glasses wher-in you carouse your wine.
1604. Shaks., Oth., II. iii. 55. Rodorigo … To Desdemona hath to night Carrows’d. Potations, pottle-deepe.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 162. Some Gentlewomen were so free in this excesse, as they would … garousse health after health with men.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 168. To Carrouze strong Drink, Brandy, Wine.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., V. 545. Egypt’s wanton queen, Carousing gems.
b. fig.
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc., 23. Carrouse vp your owne quarrels in the cup.
1645. Quarles, Sol. Recant., I. 20. Why doe we thus … carouse full Bowles Of boyling anguish?
1660. W. Secker, Nonsuch Prof., 11. If the Cup be lawful we must not carouze it.
