sb. Also 7 towzer, touzer, 9 touser. [f. TOUSE v. + -ER1; with senses c, d, e cf. thumper, whopper, etc.] One who or that which touses. a. (with capital T). A common name for a large dog, such as was used to bait bears or bulls; also transf. of a person.
1678. Otway, Friendship in F., IV. i. Fresh Game; that great Towser has started it already.
1681. Trial S. Colledge, 59. Mr. Char. … it was the Pictures of the Tantivies and the Towzer [Roger L’Estrange].
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 30 (1713), I. 197. Earn. What Papers? Did he mean the Towzers, and the Gallows, and the Broom, for which he was so famous?
1682. N. N. (title), The Heu and Cry: or, a Relation of the Travels of the Devil and Towzer, Through all the Earthly Territorys, and the Infernal Region.
1684. Otway, Atheist, III. i. Never was seen so termagant a Towzer.
1696. trans. Du Mont’s Voy. Levant, 257. Poor Towzer was condemn’d to be Cudgel’d to Death.
1881. A. McLachlan, in Mod. Sc. Poets, II. 261. Ahint him Towser wags his tail.
† b. The five of trumps in the game of gleek. Obs.
1680. Cotton, Compl. Gamester, vi. (ed. 2), 65. The fifth [is called] Towser, the sixth Tumbler, which if in hand Towser is five and Tumbler six, and so double if turn’d up.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xvi. (Roxb.), 73/2. Towser, is the fifth of the trumps.
† c. A large ship. Obs. d. A large coarse apron. dial. e. A rough or energetic person. dial.
c. 1690. Pagan Prince, xxix. 81. Now the Belgians, having lost … some three or four more of their biggest Towzers, made all the Sail they could to their own Coasts.
d. 1865. R. Hunt, Pop. Rom. W. Eng., Ser. II. 244. The Touser is a large apron or wrapper to come quite round and keep the undergarments clean.
1882. Jago, Cornw. Gloss., Touser, a large coarse apron for kitchen use.
e. 1901. E. Phillpotts, Striking Hours, 222. A wonnerful bowerly maid her was, an’ a towser for work, an’ ’mazin’ even-tempered tu.
1901. R. M. F. Watson, Closeburn, xiii. 221. A certain big, uncouth, unhallowed ‘towser’ named Tibbie Murdoch.
Hence Towser, -zer v. (nonce-wd.), trans. to worry as a dog does.
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.
