Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Rouse

Rouse (rouz or rous) , verb, intransitive and transitive

[Perhaps the same word as rouse to start up, “buckle to.”]

(Nautical) To pull or haul strongly and all together, as upon a rope, without the assistance of mechanical appliances.
buckle to.

Rouse (rouz) , noun

[Compare Dutch roes drunkeness, icel. rūss, Swedish rus, German rauchen, and also English rouse, transitive verb, rush, v.i. Compare Row a disturbance.]

1.
A bumper in honor of a toast or health. [Obsolete] — Shakespeare
2.
A carousal; a festival; a drinking frolic.
Fill the cup, and fill the can, Have a rouse before the morn. — Tennyson

Rouse (rouzd) , transitive verb

[Probably of Scan. origin; compare Swedish rusa to rush, Danish ruse, Anglo-Saxon hreósan to fall, rush. Compare Rush, v.]

1.
To cause to start from a covert or lurking place; as, to rouse a deer or other animal of the chase.
Like wild boars late roused out of the brakes. — Spenser
Rouse the fleet hart, and cheer the opening hound. — Pope
2.
To wake from sleep or repose; as, to rouse one early or suddenly.
3.
To excite to lively thought or action from a state of idleness, languor, stupidity, or indifference; as, to rouse the faculties, passions, or emotions.
To rouse up a people, the most phlegmatic of any in Christendom. — Atterbury
4.
To put in motion; to stir up; to agitate.
Blustering winds, which all night long Had roused the sea. — Milton
5.
To raise; to make erect. [Obsolete] — Spenser. Shak

Rouse , intransitive verb

1.
To get or start up; to rise. [Obsolete]
Night's black agents to their preys do rouse. — Shakespeare
2.
To awake from sleep or repose.
Morpheus rouses from his bed. — Pope
3.
To be exited to thought or action from a state of indolence or inattention.