drowse
Meanings
Plural: drowse, drowsed, drowses
Noun
- a light fitful sleep
- An act, or a state, of being drowsy or sleepy.
- A state of dullness or inactivity, as if from sleepiness.
Verb
- sleep lightly or for a short period of time
- be on the verge of sleeping
- To make (someone or something) heavy with drowsiness or sleepiness.
- Followed by away: to pass (time) drowsily or in sleeping; also, to proceed (on a way) drowsily or sleepily.
- To make (someone or something) dull or inactive, as if from sleepiness.
- Often followed by away or off: to be drowsy or sleepy; to be half-asleep.
- To be dull or inactive, as if from sleepiness.
Origin / Etymology
The verb is either:
* a back-formation from drowsy, which is attested earlier; or
* possibly from Middle English *drousen (no known attestations), from Old English drūsan, drūsian (“to droop, sink; to become feeble, inactive, low, or slow, drowse”), from Proto-Germanic *drūsijaną (“to look down; mourn”) (possibly merged with *dreusaną (“to fall”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewHs- (“to break off; to to fall down”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
cognates
* Danish drøse (“to be negligent; to slow down”)
* Dutch drozen (“to doze; muse”)
* German trauern (“to mourn, be sad”)
* Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌹𐌿𐍃𐌰𐌽 (driusan, “to fall; to fall down”)
* Norwegian døse (“to drowse”)
* Old English drēosan (“to fall; to perish; to rush”) (whence Middle English dresen (“to fall down”))
* Swedish drösa (“to be slow”)
Scrabble Score: 10
drowse is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL worddrowse is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
drowse is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary