Meanings
present singular third person touses · participle present tousing · participle past toused · past toused · alternative towze
- transitiveTo pull to pieces.
His tongue troules like a Mill-clack: a towzes the Lady ſiſters, as a tumbling Dog does young Rabets; […]
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 391 more example
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?
1844, Robert Browning, "Garden Fancies," II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgennis
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Proto-West Germanic*tūsōn
- Old English*tūsian
- Middle Englishtousen
- Englishtouse
From Middle English tousen, tusen, from Old English *tūsian, from Proto-West Germanic *tūsōn. Cognate with German zausen (“to tousle”). Related also to English tease and toase. (a noisy disturbance): Compare typologically Russian раздра́й (razdráj) (<… драть (dratʹ)).
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
touse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/touse
“touse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/touse. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “touse,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/touse.
Source: touse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.