Meaning

To make (someone or something) heavy with drowsiness or sleepiness..

Definitions by Sense

1. To make (someone or something) heavy with drowsiness or sleepiness.
2. Followed by away: to pass (time) drowsily or in sleeping; also, to proceed (on a way) drowsily or sleepily.
3. To make (someone or something) dull or inactive, as if from sleepiness.
4. Often followed by away or off: to be drowsy or sleepy; to be half-asleep.
5. To be dull or inactive, as if from sleepiness.
6. An act, or a state, of being drowsy or sleepy.
7. (figurative) A state of dullness or inactivity, as if from sleepiness.

Example Sentences

Novv vvhen as vvine had drovvned and drouſed the underſtanding: vvhen the night ſeaſon, vvhen the entermingling of men and vvomen together one vvith another (and namely, they of young and tender yeeres, vvith thoſe of elder age) had cleane put out & extinguiſhed all reſpect and regard of ſhamefaſt honeſtie: there began firſt to be practiſed all ſorts of corruption, for every one had all pleaſures readie at commaundement, and his choiſe of thoſe vvhereto by nature he vvas more prone and given to luſt after.

But novv the Fume of his aboundant Drink, / Drouzing his Brain, beginneth to deface / The ſvveet remembrance of her lovely Face: […]

A few people were there, loitering away Sunday in their best clothes. The warmth drowsed them and replaced contentment.

[T]he wary tadpole returned from exile, the bullfrog resumed his ancient song, the tranquil turtle sunned his back upon bank and log and drowsed his grateful life away as in the old sweet days of yore.

Why plague me who am pledged to home-delights? / I'm the engaged now: through whose fault but yours? / On duty. As you well know. Don't I drowse / The week away down with the Aunt and Niece? / No help: it's leisure, loneliness and love.

[William] Congreve held fast to the Greek poets, but otherwise seems to have drowsed his way through Trinity studies.

They slept again, then woke, and drowsed their way slowly towards the late afternoon when the unexpected fever awoke in him—an onslaught so sudden that the symptoms for her seemed instantly recognisable as a rogue attack of malaria.

Ida had kept him awake while he drowsed his way up the old King's Trace in eastern Missouri, feverish and weak.

Word Forms

• drowses
• drowsing
• drowsed
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• drowse
• drowsest
• drowsedst
• drowseth
• -

Synonyms for drowse

Related Words

When Should You Use Drowse?

Use drowse when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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