1640 J. D. Knave in Graine iii. sig. G^v Welladay, now by my Creed, And my merry Oaten Reed, Sike another rousing sigh Would well split me gay and blith.

1772 D. Gunston Jemmy Twitcher's Jests (new ed.) 43 A gentleman one day gave his servant a kick on the breech, upon which the fellow let a rousing fart.

1852 Hartford (Connecticut) Daily Courant 14 May 2/6 Resolutions were passed, and the meeting adjourned with three rousing cheers for Daniel Webster.

1864 Littell's Living Age 30 July 204/1 A flash of lightning, a rousing thunder-clap, and a deluge of rain increase the uproar.

1924 Boys' Life July 3/3 With a rousing shout Kak leapt to his feet, and cut a caper.

2000 S. Broughton et al. World Music: Rough Guide II. i. 255/2 Lines of several long metal trumpets..occasionally contribute rousing blasts in a deep growl.

1654 Mercurius Fumigosus 6 Dec. 241 Bring forth good cheer, Tap your Christmas beer, and make a Rowsing fire.

1682 N. Tate & J. Dryden 2nd Pt. Absalom & Achitophel 17 For our wise Rabble ne'er took pains t' enquire, What 'twas he burnt, so't made a rousing Fire.

1769 H. Brooke Fool of Quality IV. xvii. 10 The weather was very cold,..and I had a rousing fire.

1788 E. Picken Poems & Epist. 62 Thae flirds o' silk..Had I our doghter's at a candle, They'd mak' a been an' rowsan tandle.

1838 C. Dickens Let. 1 Feb. (1965) I. 366 A rousing fire half way up the chimney.

1887 R. N. Carey Uncle Max I. vi. 110 Come into the parlour, there is a fine rousing fire that will soon warm you.

1908 Out West Sept. 298 We'll have one rousing blaze, and then wade home to the hotel.

1998 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 1 May 21 When Ed got her warm again by a rousing fire he wiped the canoe dry and got her in it.

1664 H. More Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity viii. 133 It were likewise a good roosing miracle, and bigger then belief, that a certain Holy House of the Virgin's should be carried out of Palestine into Italy by an invisible hand through the aire.

1677 E. Coles Dict. Eng.-Lat. A rousing lye, mendacium magnificum.

1794 R. Burns Death & Dr. Hornbook i, in Poems (new ed.) I. 54 Ev'n Ministers they hae been kenn'd..A rousing whid, at times, to vend.

1880 G. W. Cable Grandissimes liii. 401 Having told Frowenfeld a rousing fib.., he and his bride had the hardihood to present him on the front veranda.

1907 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 574/2 She should have banged the doors, or broken the teacups, or told one good, round, honest, rousing lie!

1767 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy IX. v. 19 A Jew..had the ill luck to die of a strangury, and leave his widow in possession of a rousing trade.

1846 Merry's Museum Nov. 149/2 I have no doubt he drives a rousing trade.

1873 Chron. 3 July 5/2 The Connecticut Mutual Life is doing a rousing business here.

1910 M. Watts Nathan Burke i. xxi. 300 We understood there was a rousing trade in ballot-stuffing.

1992 R. C. Newton ‘Nazi Menace’ in Argentina, 1931–1947 xvii. 317 Cold War and commercial imperatives had created a rousing commerce with Argentina in weapons and weapon-making equipment.

1822 J. M. Good Study Med. II. 320 Membranous and muscular inflammation, before the access of gangrene, is accompanied with an acute and rousing pain.

1885 Dental Practitioner Nov. 252 He had then just enough sense to submit to a hypodermic injection of cocaine, under the promise that it would relieve him of a rousing headache.

1962 F. O'Connor Let. 10 Feb. (1979) 464 Regina can have flu shots so she didn't have the flu but she got a rousing cold in the head.

2004 P. Carroll What Nurses Know 64 If you've had four slices of a meat lover's deluxe pizza with extra garlic..you may bring on a rousing case of heartburn.

1836 W. G. Simms Mellichampe I. vii. 76 The rousing defeats which the rebels have recently sustained have pretty well done them up on every side.

1883 Tullidge's Q. Mag. Jan. 452/2 A few warm words of farewell were exchanged, and cheerful expressions of confidence in a rousing victory.

1895 27th Ann. Rep. Missouri State Board Agric. 1894 204 Our dressed poultry enterprise not proving a rousing success, we turned our attention to eggs.

1906 F. R. Fraprie Among Bavarian Inns i. 13 The team had beaten all comers for a year, and wound up shortly after my arrival by administering two rousing defeats to All-Bavaria.

2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 5 June viii. 13/1 Angelino Heights was granted the designation of a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone... Preservationists consider it a rousing success.

1671 J. Milton Samson Agonistes 1382 I begin to feel Some rouzing motions in me. View more context for this quotation

1712 A. Pope Rape of Locke i, in Misc. Poems 356 Shock just had giv'n himself the rowzing Shake.

1979 J. E. Hitt Tennessee Smith xxxvi. 401 Through the black wall of the tepee, Tennessee could hear the sounds of rousing movements, murmuring voices.

1996 A. Moore Voice of Fire (2003) 88 Scream and sunlight both awaken me, so muddled in my rousing thoughts that sound and shining seem to be all of one part.

a1742 J. Hammond Love Elegies (1743) ii. 3 My rousing Spirits feel the Trumpet's Sound.

1787 J. Thelwall Poems Var. Subj. II. 52 The corse, at length, with warmth supplied, Groan'd death-like; while by slow degrees Spasms the rousing body seize.

1821 J. Clare Village Minstrel I. 13 Meeting objects from the rousing farm.

1861 J. Grant Oliver Ellis xii. 68 As the morning bells began to toll, there came a hum from the rousing city.

1903 R. G. Moulton Moral Syst. Shakespeare iii. xii. 255 These weird omens quiver through the superstitious soul of a warrior who would have known how to encounter a room full of rousing guards.

2000 C. Holland Angel & Sword i. 22 The gorging men bounced up..; they stirred sharply like rousing wolves.