touse

English

Etymology

From Middle English tosen, from Old English *tāsan, from Proto-West Germanic *taisan. See tease. Cognate with German zausen (“to tousle”).

Verb

touse (third-person singular simple present touses, present participle tousing, simple past and past participle toused)

1. (transitive) To rumple, tousle.
2. (transitive) To pull to pieces.
   • c. 1635–1636 (date written), Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], The Fancies, Chast and Noble: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] P[urslowe] for Henry Seile, […], published 1638, →OCLC, Act III, page 39:

     His tongue troules like a Mill-clack: a towzes the Lady ſiſters, as a tumbling Dog does young Rabets; […]

   • 1844, Robert Browning, "Garden Fancies," II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgennis:

     How did he like it when the live creatures

     Tickled and toused and browsed him all over,

     And worm, slug, eft, with serious features

     Came in, each one, for his right of trover?

Alternative forms

• towze

Noun

touse (plural touses)

1. a noisy disturbance

Anagrams

• use to