Link Centre Dictionary

douse

UK/daʊs/ US/ˈdaʊs/ uncommon

verb

1.

put out, as of a candle or a light

  • “Douse the lights”
Synonyms
2.

wet thoroughly

Synonyms
3.

dip into a liquid

  • “He dipped into the pool”
Synonyms
4.

immerse briefly into a liquid so as to wet, coat, or saturate

  • “dip the garment into the cleaning solution”
  • “dip the brush into the paint”
5.

lower quickly

  • “douse a sail”
6.

slacken

  • “douse a rope”
Synonyms
7.

cover with liquid; pour liquid onto

  • “souse water on his hot face”

Origin

From Middle English duschen, dusshen (“to rush, fall”), related to Norwegian dusa (“to break, cast down from”), Old Dutch doesen (“to beat, strike”), dialectal German tusen, dusen (“to strike, run against, collide”), Saterland Frisian dössen (“to strike”). Compare doss, dust.

Related words

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.