rouse
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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rouses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
roused,
past participle, past
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rousing
present participle
-
to bring out of a state of sleep, unconsciousness, inactivity, fancied security, apathy, depression, etc..
He was roused to action by courageous words.
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to stir or incite to strong indignation or anger.
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to cause (game) to start from a covert or lair.
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Nautical Now Rare. to pull by main strength; haul.
verb (used without object)
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rouses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
roused,
past participle, past
-
rousing
present participle
-
to come out of a state of sleep, unconsciousness, inactivity, apathy, depression, etc.
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to start up from a covert or lair, as game.
noun
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a rousing.
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a signal for rousing; reveille.
noun
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Archaic. a carouse.
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Obsolete. a bumper of liquor.
verb
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to bring (oneself or another person) out of sleep, unconsciousness, etc, or (of a person) to come to consciousness in this way
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(tr) to provoke, stir, or excite
to rouse someone's anger
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to become active or energetic
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hunting to start or cause to start from cover
to rouse game birds
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(intr) falconry (of hawks) to ruffle the feathers and cause them to stand briefly on end (a sign of contentment)
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to speak scoldingly or rebukingly (to)
noun
noun
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an alcoholic drink, esp a full measure
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another word for carousal
Synonym Usage
See incite.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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rousesimple
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rousessimple
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have rousedperfect
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has rousedperfect
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am rousingprogressive
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are rousingprogressive
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is rousingprogressive
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have been rousingperfect progressive
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has been rousingperfect progressive
Past
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rousedsimple
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had rousedperfect
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was rousingprogressive
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were rousingprogressive
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had been rousingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rouse1
First recorded in 1425–75 in sense “(of a hawk) to shake the feathers”; 1525–35 rouse 1 for def. 3; origin uncertain
Origin of rouse2
First recorded in 1590–1600; perhaps variant of carouse ( drink carouse being wrongly analyzed as drink a rouse )
Explanation
When someone calls out "rise and shine," they are trying to rouse you, to make you wake up. It's thought that the word rouse was originally a 15th-century term used by hawkers for the way the birds shook out their feathers when agitated. That gives a nice mental picture to the word, and it does fit: rouse means to become awake, excited, or just plain keyed up, like those birds ruffling their feathers. Consider that when first roused in the morning, many people have to shake themselves to get ready to face the day.
Vocabulary lists containing rouse
The Best Starting Words for Wordle
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"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act IV
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Native Son
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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:
Nine minutes into the second half, the homegrown captain, neck muscles flaring, flicked a header beyond Dida, circling his arms to rouse the Reds in the Istanbul stands.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
These alarm clocks have novel ways to rouse deep sleepers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026
The 40-year-old Wawrinka must try and rouse himself on his Australian Open farewell after a gruelling five-set win in round two.
From Barron's ● Jan. 24, 2026
Their popularity spread through Europe until, in Victorian tradition, they were used to rouse ladies after fainting spells.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 12, 2026
Emma’s pensive meditations, as she walked home, were not interrupted; but on entering the parlour, she found those who must rouse her.
From "Emma" by Jane Austen
January is an odd month in the art world, as it rouses itself from its holiday slumber but struggles to shake off the sleepiness of the past month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
In Ridley Scott’s 1979 film “Alien,” the crew of the Nostromo rouses from slumber to answer a distress call that spells their doom.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2025
“American Idiot,” the show’s opening number, still rouses an audience with a mad-as-hell anthem that is as valid today as it was 20 years ago when the album came out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2024
Wearing crisp white shirts and matching red ties, the band rouses the congregation with melodic exaltations and a crash of symbols.
From Reuters ● Jul. 21, 2023
His fingers go back to my hair and I doze off, but he rouses me to see the sunset.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
When she arrived home, she roused her partner to watch the England-Mexico World Cup match.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
This is normally a good thing when it is roused to fight infection but also causes inflammation in the body which if persistent is associated with heart disease.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
According to The New York Times, Hellerstein was seen falling asleep during a trial last year and needed to be roused by his colleagues.
From Barron's ● Mar. 24, 2026
They have been roused to action and then abandoned so many times, not least by American presidents.
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2026
He found himself awakening with a jolt under the stars, roused by his own voice speaking aloud, “Left, left, right…” In the end, they stayed awake, staring up at the sky.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
We are all of us, in short, “Musical Bodies,” the title and subject of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rousing exhibition celebrating the creative and aesthetic realm where music, art, and global cultures meet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
That’s not exactly the kind of rousing Churchillian attitude that fans back home are hoping for.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
The upgrades aren’t exactly rousing endorsements of how those companies are positioned in the AI era but are rather expressive of DiFucci’s view that the shares now look more attractive after their dramatic selloffs.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
Stokes had earlier received a rousing reception when he came into the attack in the morning session.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
In his rousing baritone voice, he called for massive street demonstrations if Alabama’s blacks were not allowed to register as voters.
From "Because They Marched" by Russell Freedman
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.
