chouse

chouse

English

Etymology 1

Probably from Turkish çavuş.[1] Doublet of chiaus.

Alternative forms

• chiaus (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃaʊ̯s/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Verb

chouse (third-person singular simple present chouses, present participle chousing, simple past and past participle choused)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To cheat, to trick.
   • 1774, Samuel Foote, The Cozeners:

     This is some conspiracy, I suppose, to bam, to chouse me out of my money

   • c. 1824-1829, Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations, 1853, J. Forster (editor), The Works of Walter Savage Landor, Volume 1, page 29,

     I cannot think otherwise than that the undertaker of the aforecited poesy hath choused your Highness; for I have seen painted, I know not where, the identically same Dian, with full as many nymphs, as he calls them, and more dogs.

   • 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter IV, page 46:

     They never like you half so well as when you bring your men with you: they don't want officers so much as men; and some of the commands, if they can chouse you out of your recruits, will not stop to do so; and then you may whistle for your commission.

Synonyms

• (cheat): cheat, trick

Noun

chouse (plural chouses)

1. (obsolete) One who is easily cheated; a gullible person.
   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, OCLC 963614346:

     He that with injury is griev'd,
     And goes to law to be reliev'd,
     Is sillier than a sottish chouse
     Who , when a thief has robb'd his house,
     Applies himself to cunning men,
     To help him to his goods agen

2. (obsolete) A trick; a sham.
3. (obsolete) A swindler.
   • 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, OCLC 1008120557; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, OCLC 52009618, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     By this hand of flesh,
     Would it might never write good court-hand more,
     If I discover . What do you think of me,
     That I am a chouse?

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Alternative forms

• chowse

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃaʊ̯s/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Verb

chouse (third-person singular simple present chouses, present participle chousing, simple past and past participle choused)

1. (US, of cattle) To handle roughly, as by chasing or scaring.
2. (US, regional) To handle, to take care of.
   • 1980, John R. Erickson, Panhandle Cowboy‎, page 79:

     This gave the roundup the appearance of a cavalry charge, and a stranger observing the procedure for the first time might have thought we were a bunch of green, possibly drunken cowboys making sport out of chousing cattle. But we weren't chousing them, we were just trying to keep them in sight, and for a very good reason.

3. (transitive, US, regional) To cause undesirable activity in livestock, such as running. [from late 19th c.]
   • 1940 April 9, Owen, John, “[letter to] Paul J. Kilday”, in [Relief of] John Owen, quoted in United States congressional serial set, 76th Congress, 3rd session (January 3, 1940—January 3, 1941), miscellaneous volume 3, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, published 1940-05-24, ISSN 1931-2822, 76th Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Claims, report number 2293, page 12 of report:

     […] but the fact remains that my range cattle, because of the chousing which they received at the hands of the troops and the fright that they had, were caused to go into a period of considerable range deficiency without the flesh with which they should have entered this period.

Translations

(of cattle) disturb, agitate

Spanish: espantar (es)

References

1. "chouse." Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. 2008.

• chouse at OneLook Dictionary Search
• chouse in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• chouse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• "chouse" in Walter W. Skeat, ed., An etymological dictionary of the English language, New ed., Oxford: The Clarendon press, 1910. p. 108. →OCLC.
• "chowse" in Stephen Skinner, Thomas Henshaw, ed., Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae (in Latin), London: T. Roycroft, 1671, page unnumbered. →OCLC.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for chouse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

Anagrams

• ouches

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Champenois

Noun

chouse

1. (Auve) thing

References

• Tarbé, Prosper (1851) Recherches sur l'histoire du langage et des patois de Champagne‎ (in French), volume 1, Reims, page 109