souse (plural souses)

1. Something kept or steeped in brine
   1. The pickled ears, feet, etc., of swine.
      • 1848, Thomas Tusser, Some of the Five hundred points of good husbandry, page 58:

        And he that can rear up a pig in his house, / Hath cheaper his bacon, and sweeter his souse.

      1. (US, Appalachian) Pickled scrapple.
      2. (Caribbean) Pickled or boiled ears and feet of a pig
   2. A pickle made with salt.
   3. The ear; especially, a hog's ear.
2. The act of sousing; a plunging into water.
3. A person suffering from alcoholism.

• (person suffering from alcoholism) alcoholic, sot, suck-pint; See also Thesaurus:drunkard

souse (souses, present participle sousing; past and past participle soused)

1. (transitive) To immerse in liquid; to steep or drench.
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 2

     As she heard him sousing heartily in cold water, heard the eager scratch of the steel comb on the side of the bowl, as he wetted his hair, she closed her eyes in disgust.

2. (transitive) To steep in brine; to pickle.

souse (plural souses)

1. The act of sousing, or swooping.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Fairie Queene, Book II Canto XI:

     Eft fierce retourning as a foulcon fayre, / That once hath failed of her souse full neare

2. A heavy blow.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Fairie Queene, Book IV Canto VIII

     With that his murdrous mace he vp did reare, / That seemed nought the souse thereof could beare,

souse (souses, present participle sousing; past and past participle soused)

1. (now dialectal, transitive) To strike, beat.
2. (now dialectal, intransitive) To fall heavily.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book III Canto IV:

     Him so transfixed she before her bore / Beyond his croupe, the length of all her launce; / Till, sadly soucing on the sandy shore, / He tombled on an heape, and wallowd in his gore.

   • 1697, Virgil, John Dryden (tr.), The works of Virgil translated into English verse by John Dryden, Æneis, IX:

     Thus on some silver swan or tim'rous hare / Jove's bird comes sowsing down from upper air

3. (obsolete, transitive) To pounce upon.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

     , Act V Scene II:

     [The gallant monarch] like an eagle o'er his eyrie towers, / To souse annoyance that comes near his nest.

souse

1. (obsolete) A sou (the French coin).
2. (dated) A small amount.