souse

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aʊs

Noun

souse (plural souses)

1. A corrupt form of sou.
2. A pickle made with salt.
3. Something kept or steeped in pickle; especially, the pickled ears, feet, etc., of swine.
4. The ear; especially, a hog's ear.
5. (US, Appalachian) Pickled scrapple.
6. A person suffering from the disease of alcoholism.
7. (Caribbean) Pickled/boiled ears and feet of a pig
8. A heavy blow.

Verb

souse (third-person singular simple present souses, present participle sousing, simple past and past participle soused)

1. To immerse in liquid; to steep or drench.
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 2

     As she heard him sousing heartily in cold water, heard the eager scratch of the steel comb on the side of the bowl, as he wetted his hair, she closed her eyes in disgust.

2. (now dialectal, transitive) To strike or beat.
3. (now dialectal, intransitive) To fall heavily.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:

     Him so transfixed she before her bore / Beyond his croupe, the length of all her launce; / Till, sadly soucing on the sandy shore, / He tombled on an heape, and wallowd in his gore.

Derived terms

• soused

Anagrams

• ouses