A ſottiſh chouſe,¶ Who, when a thief has rubb'd his houſe,¶ Applies himſelf to cunning men.
1823, Human Reason (pseud.), The King's visit to Ireland; a funny poem, London, Dublin, →OCLC, page 22:
Nor is there any half-way house,¶ And he who says it is a chouse;¶ And this the simplest can decide,¶ For he has reason on his side.
1895, A. Wallace, Popular saying dissected, New York: F. A. Stokes, →OCLC, pages 149–150:
It's a chouse, means a cheat, fraud, or shame. This word dates from the year 1609, and is an adaptation of the Turkish word chiaus, or messenger. In that year, Sir Robert Shirley sent a chiaus to this country from the Grand Signor and the Sophy to transact some preparatory business. Sir John, an ambassador from both these princes, followed him at his leisure; but before he reached England, his agent had "chiaused " the Turkish and Persian merchants here out of £4,000 […] and taken his flight.
1639 March 20, “Hartford town votes”, in Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, volume 6, Hartford: Connecticut Historical Society, published 1897, →OCLC, page 31:
[…] Bridg and Mill they are to ffinish before winter Come twelue mounth and afterward to kee it in repayre ffower years and at the end of ffower years the Towne to chouse two men and they two men to set downe what either shall pay towards the repayre of booth and soe they to prouide that the Towne haue a mill ffor ther vse exsept vpon extreordynary occation […]
1596, anonymous author, A pleasant conceited comedie, called, A knacke to know an honest man (Old English drama), students' facsimile edition, [Amersham]: [Issued for subscribers by John S. Farmer], published c.1913, →OCLC, unnumbered page:
He that can teach thee how to chouſe thy goods, Ioyne both thy hands, and blow them mightily.
1653, Thomas Urquhart, “Book four”, in The works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: containing five books of the lives, heroick deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his sonne Pantagruel, volume 2, London: Navarre Society Limited, translation of original by François Rabelais, published 1921, →OCLC, page 221:
Market being over, quoth the Devil to the Farmer, well Clown thou hast chous'd me once, 'tis thy Fault; chouse me twice 'twill be mine. Nay good Sir Devil, reply'd the Farmer, how can I be said to have chous'd you since 'twas your Worship that chose first. The truth is that by this Trick you thought to cheat me, […]
When geeſe and pullen are ſeduc'd, And ſows of ſucking pigs are chous'd.
1663 May 15, Samuel Pepys, edited by Mynors Bright and Henry Benjamin Wheatley, The diary of Samuel Pepys, for the first time fully transcribed from the shorthand manuscript in the Pepysian library, Magdalene College, Cambridge, volume 5, New York: G. E. Groscup, published 1893, →OCLC, page 117:
The Portugalls have choused us, it seems, in the island of Bombay in the East Indys; […]
Freedom and and zeal have chous'd you o'er and o'er; Pray give us leave to bubble you once more.
1727, [Peter Longueville], “English hermit: unparalleled sufferings and surprising adventures of Mr. Philip Quarll”, in The novelist's magazine, volume 21, London: Harrison, published 1786, →OCLC, page 52:
Well, faith, ſince it is ſo, I'll make the beſt on't, and try whether I can't chouſe him of his partner.
1787 June, P. Q., “[letter to the editor]”, in The gentleman's magazine[1], volume 57, number 6, London, →OCLC, page 497:
[…] let it be conſidered that every manœuvre and artifice is in exertion to chouſe the Ottomans out of whole provinces.
1893, Mynors Bright, Henry Benjamin Wheatley, editors, The diary of Samuel Pepys, for the first time fully transcribed from the shorthand manuscript in the Pepysian library, Magdalene College, Cambridge, volume 5, New York: G. E. Groscup, →OCLC, pages 117–118, note 2:
The word chouse appears to have been introduced into the language at the beginning of the seventeenth century. In 1609, a Chiaus sent by Sir Robert Shirley, from Constantinople to London, had chiaused (or choused) the Turkish and Persian merchants out of ₤4,000, before the arrival of his employer, and had decamped. The affair was quite recent in 1610, when Jonson's "Alchemist" appeared, in which it is thus alluded to:[…]
verb: "agitate, excite, or provoke undesirable activity in livestock, such as running"[edit]
1897 December, Grace MacGowan Cooke, “A plains providence”, in Munsey's magazine[2], volume 18, number 3, New York: Frank A. Munsey, →OCLC, page 405:
What we heard after this seemed to be a sort of general stampede and chousing around, […]
1899, “Southern Kansas Ry. Co. of Texas v. Isaacs et al. (Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Feb. 25, 1899.)”, in South Western Reporter[3], volume 49, St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, →ISSN, page 691:
Exactly what Injury was done the cattle by "driving and chousing" them is not made entirely clear by the record, since the word "chousing" was used on the trial in a sense evidently as yet unknown to the lexicographers, though apparently quite well understood by all parties engaged. […] It may be that, using the term in a highly metaphorical sense, the cattle, by being frequently driven to and fro in the pasture to prevent their escape, were thus choused or cheated out of their grass. The provincial use, except inferentially, is not explained in the record.
1914 March 11, Andrieus A. Jones, “Statement of Hon. A. A. Jones, Assistant Secretary of the Interior”, in Hearing before the Committee on the public lands, House of representatives, Sixty-third Congress, second session, on H.R. 9582 and H.R. 10539, a bill to provide for the disposition of grazing lands under the homestead laws, and for other purposes, Part 1, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, published 1915, →OCLC, page 471:
He at any rate would not want anybody prowling around over his range, and if the homesteader could come in and turn loose his 100 head of cattle in the pasture there would be a mixing of the cattle, and one man might not want to brand at the same time as the other man, and there would be at least some of the objections which now obtain to running cattle upon the public domain, one man going in and "chousing around" the cattle of his neighbor and all that sort of thing. It is very objectionable.
[1919?], Frank S. Hastings, The story of the S.M.S. Ranch, [7th ?] edition, [Stamford, TX?]: [Swenson Bros.?], →OCLC, page 158:
To "Chouse" means to stir the cattle up more than is good for them. For instance, a man who does not know his business and tries to cut cattle out of a herd will "chouse" them, while a man who does know his business will do little more than move the animal he is after.
1931?, American beef producer[4], Denver, CO: American National Livestock Association Publishing Company, →ISSN, page 5:
They were chousing the horses up the bed of the river and were about to turn them into a trail topping out on a mesa when they saw a bull standing near the water at the trail entrance.
1936, Mary Kidder Rak, Mountain cattle, Boston [u.a.]: Houghton Mifflin, →OCLC, page 147:
We like to disturb the cattle as seldom as possible and then handle them gently, not running them, scaring, or otherwise 'chousing' them.
1940 April 9, John Owen, “[letter to] Paul J. Kilday”, in [Relief of] John Owen, quoted in United States congressional serial set, 76th Congress, 3rd session (January 3, 1940—January 3, 1941), miscellaneous volume 3, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, published 1940-05-24, →ISSN, 76th Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Claims, report number 2293, page 12 of report:
[…] but the fact remains that my range cattle, because of the chousing which they received at the hands of the troops and the fright that they had, were caused to go into a period of considerable range deficiency without the flesh with which they should have entered this period.
1948, John K. Rollinson, edited by E. A. Brininstool, Wyoming cattle trails, history of the migration of Oregon-raised herds to mid-western markets, Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, →OCLC, page 33:
[…]they would, in spite of caution, excite and "chouse" the herd, making it difficult to hold.
We worked up behind a rocky spine and jumped a harem-herd just beyond it. The animals strung out, with the boss-buck chousing them along.
1983, Lonn Taylor, “The open-range cowboy or the nineteenth century”, in Lonn Taylor, Ingrid Maar, editors, The American cowboy: [an exhibition at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, March 26, 1983–September 15, 1983], Studies in American Folklife, volume 2, Washington, DC: American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, →ISBN, page 23:
Cowboys had to be careful not to "chouse" cattle, that is, to run them and cause them to lose precious weight. Cows and calves had to be moved slowly, gently, toward the gathering herd.
c.1983, “Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982”, in Digital collections of the Library of Congress[5], Washington, DC: American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, archived from the original on 2014-10-15:
A common mistake made by new or careless buckaroos is the needless hurrying along of walking cattle, and many a boy has been reprimanded for "chousing the cows."
1916, Maurice Hewlett, The song of the plow: being the English chronicle, New York: Macmillan, →OCLC, page 72:
And so he did, if we may trust His chroniclers,who see him roll And wallow in the stye of lust, Sunk to the eyelids, a hog turned loose, Chousing the cider in the must, Easing his hot flesh in the stews To lure his heart from fruitless sorrow.