Other forms: rousing, roused, rouses
To rouse is to wake somebody, or to stir them into action. Rouse him at six, rouse the crowd, roused to anger.
The waking sense implies effort — rousing somebody who does not want to wake. The stirring sense is stronger and takes to: roused to action, roused to fury. Rousing as an adjective means stirring: a rousing speech, a rousing chorus. Note arouse, which now carries a sexual sense that rouse does not; and that the word came into English from falconry.
1verbwakeTo wake somebody.
“The fire alarm roused the guests from their sleep at midnight.”
2verbrouseTo stir somebody into action or feeling.
“The captain's speech roused the team to fight back in the second half.”
rouse is a waking or stirring.
Middle English rousen was a falconry term for a hawk shaking its feathers. The general sense of stirring grew from that, and the earlier history is unknown.
Middle English
rousen
English, today
rouse
From Middle English rousen. The is derived from Late Middle English rousen (“of a hawk: to shake its feathers”); further etymology unknown. Because many terms of French origin are used in falconry, it has been assumed that the Middle English word is derived from Anglo-Norman or French; however, no satisfactory has been found. The following words have been suggested, but are thought by the Oxford English Dictionary to be unlikely due to the differences in meaning:
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA