it will be seen to be at least thirty years older. For synonyms, see Jamboree.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. 'We'll have a jolly boose when all's over.'
1884. St. James's Gazette, 19 Dec, p. 4, col. 1. There was a great booze on board.
Verb (common).—To drink heavily; to tipple; to guzzle. An old term employed in some sense of 'to drink' as early as 1300. Also booze (q.v.). For synonyms, see Swill.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 5. The buriall was tourned to bousing and belly cheere.
1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, in wks. II., 91. They should haue all the companie that resort to them, bye bowzing and beere-bathing in their bouses every after-noone.
1777. Colman, Epilogue to Sheridan's School for Scandal. While good Sir Peter boozes with the squire.
1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ch. xiii., p. 173. 'I wonder, Sir Charles Lyndon, a gentleman who has been the King's ambassador, can demean himself by gambling and boozing with low Irish black-legs!'
So also boozed (ppl. adj.), drunk, fuddled; boozy (adj.), drunken, 'screwed'; boozing (verbal subs.), the act of drinking hard; and boozer (subs.), a drunkard, a tippler—examples of which respectively will be found hereunder in sections.
b. 1529. Skelton, Elynoor Rommin, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), I., 416. Droupy and drowsie, Scurvy and lousie Her face all bowsie.
1592. Greene, Quip, in wks. XI., 253. To marke the bowsie drunkard to dye of the dropsy.
1611. Cotgrave, Piailleur: in . . . a tipler, bowser.
1616. Jonson, Devil's an Ass, V., 4. And in the meantime, to be greasy, and bouzy.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. iv., p. 36 (1874). Most part of the night we spent in boozing, pecking rumly . . . that is drinking, eating.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, x., 288. Which in his cups the bowsy poet sings.
1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. IV., p. 14. Amongst a Crowd of Sots, half boozy.
c. 1819. Wolcot, P. Pindar, p. 303, ed. 1830.
This landlord was a boozer stout, A snuff-taker and smoker. [d.]
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxiii. The boozy unshorn wretch is seen hovering round quays as packets arrive, and tippling drams in inn bars where he gets credit.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxxiii. The quantity of brandy-and-water that Jack took showed what a regular boozer he was.
1850. P. Crook, War of Hats, 50. Boozed in their tavern dens, The scurril press drove all their dirty pens.
1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, ch. xi. 'Till they can show there's something they love better than swilling themselves with ale, entension of the suffrage can never mean anything for them but entension of boozing.'
1889. Ally Sloper's Half Holiday, Aug. 24, p. 267, col. 2. In Canton gardens I have boozed; Beneath the palm-trees I have snoozed; I've seen the alligator smile. And peppered at the crocodile.
Boozing Cheat, subs. (thieves').—bottle.
[From booze (q.v.),
drink, + cheat, from A.S. ceat,
a thing.]
Boozing-Ken, subs. (old).—A
drinking den. [From booze
(q.v.), drink, + ken, a place.]
A term of long standing. A
French equivalent is une bibine,
but for general synonyms,
see Lush crib.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. A bowsing-ken, a ale house.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). Bowsing-ken, an Ale-house.
