booze
[booz]Informal.
- any alcoholic beverage; whiskey.
- a drinking bout or spree.
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- to drink alcohol, especially to excess: He continued to booze until his health finally gave out.
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- booze it up, to drink heavily and persistently.
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Origin of booze
1610–20; respelling of bouse2, reflecting one of its pronunciation variants
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for booze
Contemporary Examples
Cue heartbroken Galavant engorging himself on booze and mutton back home.
The Internet is like booze—a little bit gives you a pleasant buzz.
10 Things That Made Us Want to Turn Off the Internet Forever in 2014The Daily Beast
December 15, 2014
Oregon and Alaska, like Colorado and Washington, will try their hand at regulating weed like booze.
The Founders had a sure-fire way to get out the vote: get out the booze.
He has engaged in numerous battles with booze, winning some and losing others.
Historical Examples
If health is a desideratum, one way to attain a lot of it is to cut out the booze.
The Old GameSamuel G. Blythe
The glasses were filled up again as fast as they were emptied, the booze increased.
L'AssommoirEmile Zola
At eight o'clock that day, he was still lively from the booze of the day before.
L'AssommoirEmile Zola
A man could fight on booze, he said, but it was a mighty poor foundation for business.
The Duke Of Chimney ButteG. W. Ogden
Keep them out of the house and away from the women, and let them have their booze down in the grove.
Rim o' the WorldB. M. Bower
booze
- alcoholic drink
- a drinking bout or party
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- (usually intr) to drink (alcohol), esp in excess
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Word Origin
C13: from Middle Dutch būsen
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for booze
n.
by 1821, perhaps 1714; probably originally as a verb, "to drink a lot" (1768), variant of Middle English bouse (c.1300), from Middle Dutch busen "to drink heavily," related to Middle High German bus (intransitive) "to swell, inflate," of unknown origin. The noun reinforced by name of Philadelphia distiller E.G. Booze. Johnson's dictionary has rambooze "A drink made of wine, ale, eggs and sugar in winter time; or of wine, milk, sugar and rose-water in the summer time." In New Zealand from c.World War II, a drinking binge was a boozeroo.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper