rouse.
To cause (something) to be (more) active or to move; to agitate, to stir up.
Meaning & usage
To cause (something) to be (more) active or to move; to agitate, to stir up.
To cause (something) to be (more) active or to move; to agitate, to stir up. To stir (a liquid, especially (brewing) beer in the brewing process).
To provoke (someone) to react (for example, in anger or annoyance); to spur; also, to annoy, to tease.
Originally chiefly followed by up: to cause (an emotional reaction, a feeling, etc.); to excite, to incite, to stir up.
to rouse the emotions or passions
Sometimes followed by up: to disturb (someone) from a state of apathy, comfort, etc.
Sometimes followed by up: to wake (oneself or someone) from deep thought, or rest or sleep; to awaken.
To lift up or raise (someone; or something, especially the head).
Sometimes followed by up: to cause (oneself) to be active or alert; to incite, to stir; also, to cause (oneself) to carry out a task, take action, etc.
Of a hawk: to shake (its own) feathers.
Of a person: to stretch (one's own) body.
Chiefly of a bird: to cause (its crest, feathers, etc.) to become stiff or to stand up.
To disturb (someone's sleep).
To cause (game) to emerge from cover.
to rouse a deer or other animal of the chase
To pull (a cable, rope, etc.) in a specified direction, especially to tighten it; to haul.
Sometimes followed by up: to carry out a task, take action, etc.
Sometimes followed by up: to wake from deep thought, or rest or sleep; to awaken.
Sometimes followed by up: of a characteristic or emotion: to be stirred up or to become stronger.
Of a hawk, or (generally) some other bird: to shake its feathers.
To move quickly; to rush.
Of hair: to stand on end; to bristle.
Sometimes followed by up: of game: to emerge from cover.
Where this word comes from
The verb is derived from Late Middle English rousen (“of a hawk: to shake its feathers”); further etymology unknown. Because many terms of French origin are used in falconry, it has been assumed that the Middle English word is derived from Anglo-Norman or French; however, no satisfactory etymon has been found. The following words have been suggested, but are thought by the Oxford English Dictionary to be unlikely due to the differences in meaning: * Anglo-Norman rëuser, roser, ruser, russer, Middle French ruser, and Old French rëuser (“to drive back, repulse”) (modern French ruser). * An Old Norse word from which Danish ruse (“to hurry, rush”) and Swedish rusa (“to hurry, rush”) are derived. Compare row (“quarrel”), possibly related to or derived from this word. The noun is derived from the verb.
An act of causing something to be (more) active or to move; a shakeup, a stir; also (chiefly US), a commotion, a disturbance.
Chiefly of a hawk: an act of shaking the feathers.
Often in the form Rouse and preceded by the: the sounding of a call, usually on the bugle in the morning after reveille, to signal that soldiers are to rise from bed; also, the reveille.
Where this word comes from
The verb is derived from Late Middle English rousen (“of a hawk: to shake its feathers”); further etymology unknown. Because many terms of French origin are used in falconry, it has been assumed that the Middle English word is derived from Anglo-Norman or French; however, no satisfactory etymon has been found. The following words have been suggested, but are thought by the Oxford English Dictionary to be unlikely due to the differences in meaning: * Anglo-Norman rëuser, roser, ruser, russer, Middle French ruser, and Old French rëuser (“to drive back, repulse”) (modern French ruser). * An Old Norse word from which Danish ruse (“to hurry, rush”) and Swedish rusa (“to hurry, rush”) are derived. Compare row (“quarrel”), possibly related to or derived from this word. The noun is derived from the verb.
A full or large cup or glass of an alcoholic beverage, especially when drunk as a toast; a bumper.
to give a rouse to take one’s rouse
A social gathering at which alcoholic beverages are drunk; a drinking bout or party; a carousal.
Where this word comes from
Probably from carouse (“(obsolete) of drinking a cup of an alcoholic beverage: to the bottom”, adverb), from a rebracketing of the phrase drink carouse as drink a rouse. Carouse is derived from German gar aus (“all out”), as in gar-aus trinken (“to drink all out; to drink to the bottom”).
Followed by at, on, etc.: to criticize severely; to tell off.
He roused on her for being late yet again.
Where this word comes from
Origin uncertain, possibly a variant of one of the following: * From rouse (“to provoke (someone) to react (for example, in anger or annoyance); to cause (an emotional reaction, a feeling, etc.); and other senses”) (see etymology 1; and compare Scots rouse (“to become agitated, enraged, or excited, to grow angry”)). * From roust (“(Scotland, archaic) to roar, shout”), from Scots roust, rowst (“to roar, shout”), possibly related to Old Norse raust (“voice”, noun).
To sprinkle salt on (fish, especially herring) in the process of curing; to salt.
Where this word comes from
An aphetic form of arrouse (“(obsolete) to sprinkle (something) with water or some other liquid; of a river, sea, etc.: to provide (land) with water”), from Late Middle English arouse, arrouse, arowse, arrowse, from Anglo-Norman arouser, aruser, Middle French arouser, arrouser, and Old French aroser (“to sprinkle (something) with water or some other liquid; to make (something) wet, soak”) (modern French arroser), from Late Latin *arrosare, from Latin arrōrāre, adrōrāre, the present active infinitives of arrōrō, adrōrō (“to bedew; to besprinkle, moisten”), from ad- (prefix meaning ‘to, towards’) + rōrō (“to be moist; to drip, trickle”). Rōrō is derived from rōr- (the oblique stem of rōs (“dew; moisture”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rṓs (“dew; liquid, moisture”), possibly from *h₁ers- (“to flow”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). Compare Scots rouse (“to sprinkle salt on (fish) in the process of curing; to sprinkle water on (something)”).
Used as an epithet for a person: having red hair; red-haired, redheaded.
Where this word comes from
From Late Middle English rous, rouse (“(adjective) red-haired; (noun) person with red hair”), from Anglo-Norman rous, rus, and Middle French rous, roux (“red-haired, chiefly used to describe William II of England”), from Old French ros (“(uncertain) red-faced; red-haired”) (modern French roux), from Latin russus (“red; red-haired”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ- (“red”). Doublet of red.
To cause (something) to rest or settle.
To rest or settle.
Where this word comes from
Origin unknown.
Try it on your idea.
rouse has 5 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
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.