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douse.

To plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/daʊs/

  1. To plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse.

    ambitransitive

  2. To fall suddenly into water.

    intransitive

  3. To put out; to extinguish.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Probably of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish dunsa (“to plumb down, fall clumsily”), Danish dunse (“to thump”). Compare Old English dwǣsċan (“to extinguish”) and douse below.

noun/daʊs/

  1. A sudden plunging into water.

Where this word comes from

Probably of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish dunsa (“to plumb down, fall clumsily”), Danish dunse (“to thump”). Compare Old English dwǣsċan (“to extinguish”) and douse below.

verb/daʊs/

  1. To strike, beat, or thrash.

    transitive

  2. To strike or lower in haste; to slacken suddenly

    transitive
    Douse the topsail!
Where this word comes from

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.

noun/daʊs/

  1. A blow or strike, especially to the face.

Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.