verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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carousesimple
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carousessimple
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have carousedperfect
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has carousedperfect
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am carousingprogressive
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are carousingprogressive
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is carousingprogressive
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have been carousingperfect progressive
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has been carousingperfect progressive
Past
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carousedsimple
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had carousedperfect
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was carousingprogressive
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were carousingprogressive
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had been carousingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of carouse
First recorded in 1550–60; variant of garouse, from German gar aus (trinken) “(to drink) fully out,” i.e., “to drain the cup”; compare Middle French carous, from dialectal German gar ūs
Explanation
Carouse means to drink a lot of alcohol and behave in a loud, exuberant way. The neighbors will not appreciate it if you and your friends carouse in the backyard until dawn. Carouse comes from the German gar aus trinken meaning “all out," “drain the cup” or “drink up.” The English adopted the word in the 16th century, and it came to mean “sitting around drinking until closing time.” A noisy drinking party is sometimes called a carouse.
Vocabulary lists containing carouse
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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The Tragedy of Macbeth
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"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act II
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“What a pity the fair lady can’t be there, invisible,” Ibsen’s Hedda grumbled at being left home while the men got to carouse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2025
We've compiled our most Oktoberfest-approved recipes for those who want to carouse from home.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2022
Of course we would want to carouse and break bread with Stanley Tucci.
From Slate ● Mar. 4, 2021
In order to define gin, however, or to pronounce on its universal impact, it’s not enough to bemoan the excesses of the past or to carouse amid the wares of the present.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 2, 2019
Let them play poker and carouse all they wanted, all Jean Louise wanted was for the old house to be taken care of.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
Susan Sarandon, dying of cancer, carouses in her pajamas with her kids, belting out the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell anthem into a curling iron.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2018
The protagonist of “Heroes for Sale,” played by Richard Barthelmess, battles his way through World I and carouses throughout the Roaring Twenties only to wind up bewildered on the bread line.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2017
At town-hall meetings, conferences, white-sausage breakfasts, dinners, and late-night carouses, I encountered many types.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 26, 2016
Single Black And White is strident and sonorous; while the Beatlesesque Teeth White carouses around a choppy guitar groove.
From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2015
This comes, probably through French, from Ger. garaus, quite out, in the phrase garaus trinken, i.e., to drink bumpers— "The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet."
From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Weekley, Ernest
They caroused with the same intensity they brought to the workplace.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 18, 2019
Everywhere you looked, revellers in funny hats caroused at open-air sheds hastily erected for the weekend.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 22, 2019
Tyndall said that while his classmates caroused, he was in his room studying.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2018
The Lapin is atmospheric: a two-room cabin from the 1860s where generations of artists and ne’er-do-wells have caroused, from the impressionists onwards.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 16, 2015
Food was eaten, mead was drunk, and they caroused and joked and talked and boasted and laughed as the fires became glowing coals, until the sun crept up above the horizon.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
And that was so shocking that the Chicago Cubs even hired a private investigator to see if late-night carousing was the source of Wilson’s woes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Packed bars with carousing revelers spilling onto clogged streets.
From New York Times ● May 9, 2024
His songs blended the scabrous and the sentimental, ranging from carousing anthems to snapshots of life in the gutter to unexpectedly tender love songs.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 30, 2023
Beneath the gaiety and carousing ran an undercurrent of anguish: the country remains locked in a ferocious war with Russia.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 14, 2023
It was late, but a bone expert from Chicago had presented that night and they might still be carousing in the local saloons.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
