Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To cause to get out of bed.
  • transitive verb To cause to leave; drive away.
  • transitive verb To confront or treat aggressively.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To rouse or disturb; rout out; stir or start up.
  • To stir or act briskly; move or work energetically. Compare roustabout.
  • noun A tidal current.
  • To drive fiercely, as a current.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. & Local, U.S. To rouse; to disturb.
  • noun A strong tide or current, especially in a narrow channel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive to rout out of bed; to rouse
  • verb transitive, slang to arrest
  • noun A strong tide or current, especially in a narrow channel.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably alteration of rouse.]

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Examples

  • I fancied that I could even hear the deep "roust" she made as she respired the air, without which she cannot exist any more than animals of the land or air.

    Peter the Whaler William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • He also knows Jose will roust the new guy from bed if he's overslept or had a boozy weekend.

    Ray Suarez: Why America Now? Ray Suarez 2010

  • Why should these companies bring jobs back here, when over there they can roust thousands from dorms at midnight and make them use toxic chemicals for 12 hours a day for very low pay to make iPhone screens that he can sell at fantastically high prices?

    Dave Johnson: China Is Very "Business-Friendly" Dave Johnson 2012

  • No American plant can roust workers out of nearby dorms at midnight to force them onto a 12-hour shift.

    Dave Johnson: China Is Very "Business-Friendly" Dave Johnson 2012

  • And in my book-walled den, the mausoleum of the thoughts of men, I take my drink, and other drinks, and roust out the sleeping dogs from the recesses of my brain and hallo them on over the walls of prejudice and law and through all the cunning labyrinths of superstition and belief.

    Chapter 36 2010

  • He also knows Jose will roust the new guy from bed if he's overslept or had a boozy weekend.

    Ray Suarez: Why America Now? Ray Suarez 2010

  • Some law-enforcement authorities went all the way to Turkey to roust alleged mortgage fraudster Diane H. Frederick Atari.

    Crime and Punishment Al Lewis 2011

  • He also knows Jose will roust the new guy from bed if he's overslept or had a boozy weekend.

    Ray Suarez: Why America Now? Ray Suarez 2010

  • If your kids go wading into the water by the fountain it's likely the Lake Corporation coppers in their boat will come and roust them out.

    Wednesday lunch in L.O. (Jack Bog's Blog) 2009

  • He also knows Jose will roust the new guy from bed if he's overslept or had a boozy weekend.

    Ray Suarez: Why America Now? Ray Suarez 2010

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