douse
verb /daʊs/
/daʊs/
(also dowse)
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they douse | /daʊs/ /daʊs/ |
| he / she / it douses | /ˈdaʊsɪz/ /ˈdaʊsɪz/ |
| past simple doused | /daʊst/ /daʊst/ |
| past participle doused | /daʊst/ /daʊst/ |
| -ing form dousing | /ˈdaʊsɪŋ/ /ˈdaʊsɪŋ/ |
- douse something (with something) to stop a fire from burning by pouring water over it; to put out a light
- He doused the flames with a fire extinguisher.
- douse somebody/something (in/with something) to pour a lot of liquid over somebody/something; to soak somebody/something in liquid
- The car was doused in petrol and set alight.
- The horses are doused with buckets of cold water.
Word Originearly 17th cent.: perhaps imitative, influenced by souse, or perhaps from dialect douse ‘strike, beat’, from Middle Dutch and Low German dossen.