Now rare. Forms: (3 to-tuse, 4–5 be-touse), 6–7 towse, 6–8 touze, towze, 6– touse, 8–9 Sc. and north. dial. toose. [The simple vb. is known only from c. 1509; but the compounds with be- and to- are found in ME. from c. 1300, pointing to an unrecorded OE. *túsian, ME. túsen, tousen, cognate with OHG. -zûsôn in zir-zûsôn to pull to pieces, MHG. er-zûsen, er-zousen, Ger. zausen; also LG. (EFris.) tûsen to pull or shake about, tease, treat roughly, NFris. tuuse to pull by the hair:—OTeut. vb. stem *tūs-, closely allied in sense to *tais-, whence TEASE and TOZE.]
1. trans. To pull roughly about; to drag or push about; to handle roughly; of a dog: to tear at, worry.
[c. 1300. Havelok, 1948. Bernard sone ageyn [him] nam Al to-tused and al to-torn.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 12944. Thei were alle thorow wet…. Al be-rayned and be-toused.]
1509. Hawes, Conv. Swearers, xii. Beholde my body with blody proppes endewed … Towsed and tugged with othes cruelly.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 83 b. There was a Dog … which at the first dash or onset … daunted and toused the Lyon.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xi. 33. As a Beare, whom angry curres have touzd.
1633. Heywood, Eng. Trav., II. Wks. 1874, IV. 26. The Cooke … did so Towse them and Tosse them, so Plucke them and Pull them.
1736. Mrs. Delany, in Life & Corr. (1861), I. 556. To Court, where we were touz’d and hunched about to make room for citizens in their fur gowns.
1869. Peacock, Lonsdale Gloss., Touze, to tug or pull about.
1898. T. Hardy, Wessex Poems, 66. When she used to sing and pirouette And touse the tambourine.
† b. To pull out of joint, to rack. Obs. rare.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., V. i. 313. To th’ racke with him: we’ll towze you Ioynt by ioynt, but we will know his purpose.
† c. To pull (a woman) about rudely, indelicately, or in horse-play; to tousle. Obs.
1623. Massinger, Bondman, I. iii. They are rough, Boisterous, and saucy, and at the first sight Ruffle and touze us.
1638. Ford, Fancies, III. iii. He towzes the lady-sisters as a tumbling dog does young rabbits.
1675. Hobbes, Odyssey, XVI. 103. Maids tous’d ill-favouredly.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), I. 93. And she … Still gave him leave to towze her.
1751. Eliza Heywood, Betsy Thoughtless, I. 71. He … began to kiss and touze me so, that … I was frighted almost out of my wits.
2. To disorder, dishevel (the hair, dress, etc.); to tumble, rumple (bed-clothes, sheets, etc.).
1598. Florio, Sparpagliare, to desheuell, to vnkembe, to touze a womans haire.
1647. Stapylton, Juvenal, 215. Though her … hair be tows’d, her face and eares do glow.
1682. D’Urfey, Butler’s Ghost, 149. A Rampant shaver,… with licentious hands does touze The Bridal Vesture of your Spouse.
1693. Congreve, Old Bach., IV. viii. Oh the most inhumane barbarous Hackney-Coach! I am jolted to a Jelly!—Am I not horribly touzed.
1912. R. Macdonald, First of Ebb, xi. Upon the lap of Clothilde … lay the toused, sleeping poll of the little Antoinette.
3. fig. To abuse or maltreat in some way compared to the literal senses. Now rare or Obs.
1530. Tindale, Answ. More, III. xiii. Wks. (1573), 311/1. There he biteth, sucketh, gnaweth, towseth, and mowseth Tyndall.
1593. Drayton, Eclogues, i. 59. Fortune, the World that towzes to and fro.
1609. Bp. W. Barlow, Answ. Nameless Cath., 86. Hee hath rowsed her in her Death-bed; now hee runnes backe 70. yeeres, to towse her in her Cradle.
c. 1680. Hickeringill, Hist. Whiggism, I. Wks. 1716, I. 37. If they get a piece of a Text by the end … they do so tear it, and towze it, and towzer it … that they lose themselves.
1844. Blackw. Mag., LVI. 212. Invite especially those that have hitherto tightly toused, mocked, and scorned thee.
† 4. To tease (wool); = TOZE v.1 1. Obs.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 4. Deuising beetles, hackels, wheeles, and frame, Wherwith to bruse, touse, spin, and weaue the same.
1601. Holland, Pliny, IX. xxxviii. I. 259. They let the wooll lie to take the liquor… then they have it forth, touse, and card it.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Towz or Toze Wooll, is to Card or dress it.
† 5. intr. To touse each other, tussle; also fig.; in quot. 1607, to pull things about in disorder, rummage. Obs.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 25. While she & I be touzyng & topplyng together.
1606. Ford, Hon. Tri. (1843), 16. I touze to gaine me fame and reputation.
1607. Dekker & Webster, Northw. Hoe, III. Wks. 1873, III. 41. Sondry times shee … opend her chests, touz’d among her linnen.
1681. Otway, Soldier’s Fort., I. i. To see a pretty Wench and a young Fellow touze and rouze and frouze and mouze.
Hence Toused ppl. a., Tousing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
a. 1500. Jack Juggler (1873), 66. I haue forgotten with tousing by the here, What I deuised to say a lytle ere.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 21. Hee noted Aeneas his touzd-tost nauye to wander.
1682. Mrs. Behn, City Heiress, 21. Be sawcy, forward, bold, towzing, and lewd.
18[?]. Moore, Moral Positions, iii. To guard the frail package from tousing and routing.
1912. Toused [see sense 2].
