douse

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“
I was, however, immediately hauled out by the shaggy Tritons, and after a fresh application of lather, my face was scraped over with the piece of hoop Douse him--douse the baby again!"

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Definitions (22)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. transitive verb To plunge into liquid; immerse. See Synonyms at dip.
  2. transitive verb To wet thoroughly; drench.
  3. transitive verb To put out (a light or fire); extinguish.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Campers should stir up a fire and douse it heavily with water several times. —  The Union - All Categories
  • The crisply fried rice flower and coconut milk crêpe (more like an oversized potato rosti than the type you'd douse with lemon and sugar) comes stuffed with pork, prawn and bean sprouts and served with lettuce, bunches of fresh holy basil and mint, and nuoc cham, a sweet chilli sauce. —  Home
  • Funding questions seemed to douse some of the grand visions the council was asked to explore.
  • Firefighters worked to douse the flames for nearly four hours and as of 10: 30 p.m. were still putting out hot spots, though the fire was under control. —  timesunion.com: Local Breaking News
  • Some are simple, such as a bamboo straw that lets you spit water on lit torches to douse them or cool shinobi cats.
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same contextWord Family

douse:   doused
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From obsolete douse, to strike.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Also written dowse, formerly douze, douce, dause, etc.; perhaps of Scandinavian origin: cf. Swedish dunsa, plump down, fall clumsily (duns, the noise of a falling body), =Danish dunse, thump. Cf. douse.
  2. Also written dowse; Scots douce, doyce, douss, etc.; from the verb.
  3. Also written dowse; perhaps a particular use of douse. Usually taken as a corruption of dout, but such a change would be very unusual. Certainly not from Anglo-Saxon dwæscan, extinguish.
 

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/daʊs)/
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