wowse
/waʊz
/verb [no object] Australian /NZ informal
Comment on moral issues, typically in a puritanical or censorious way: it is time Sydney Anglicans and Protestants stopped wowsing ineffectually at a high level...
- There are other people living on boats in the marina, and we wouldn't want them wowsing.
- Oh, why will they Wowse, these public men?
- Sane-minded Australians will be disgusted to learn that there is a movement on foot in wowsing circles here to import Cockney members of that nauseous body, the Y.M.C.A., to Australia in large quantities.
Origin
Early 20th century: back-formation from wowser.
- of note
- of old
- of one's choice
- of one's own
- of one's own accord
- of one's (own) making
- of (or by or on) one's own volition
- of (or for) a surety
- of (or from) the old school
- Ofrail
- of some size
- of sorts
- Ofsted
- oft
- Oftel
- often
- oftenness
- oftens
- oftentime
- oftentimes
- of the blood (royal)
- of the essence
- of the first magnitude
- of the first order (or magnitude)
- of the first water