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Rouse vs Distract - What's the difference?

rouse | distract | Related terms |

Distract is a synonym of rouse.



In obsolete terms the difference between rouse and distract

is that rouse is to raise; to make erect while distract is insane; mad.

As verbs the difference between rouse and distract

is that rouse is to wake or be awoken from sleep, or from apathy while distract is to divert the attention of.

As a noun rouse

is an arousal.

As a proper noun Rouse

is {{surname|lang=en}.

As an adjective distract is

separated; drawn asunder.

rouse

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) reuser, ruser, originally used in English of hawks shaking the feathers of the body. Figurative meaning "to stir up, provoke to activity" is from 1580s; that of "awaken" is first recorded 1590s.

Alternative forms

* rouze (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • an arousal
  • (military, British, and, Canada) The sounding of a bugle in the morning after reveille, to signal that soldiers are to rise from bed, often the rouse .

    • Verb

    (rous)
  • to wake or be awoken from sleep, or from apathy.
    • to rouse the faculties, passions, or emotions
  • * Atterbury
    • to rouse up a people, the most phlegmatic of any in Christendom
  • * Shakespeare
    • Night's black agents to their preys do rouse .
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Morpheus rouses from his bed.
  • (senseid) To provoke (someone) to anger or action.
  • * Milton
    • Blustering winds, which all night long / Had roused the sea.
  • To cause to start from a covert or lurking place.
    • to rouse a deer or other animal of the chase
  • * Spenser
    • Like wild boars late roused out of the brakes.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Rouse the fleet hart, and cheer the opening hound.
  • (nautical) To pull by main strength; to haul
  • (obsolete) To raise; to make erect.
    • (Spenser)
    (Shakespeare)

    Etymology 2

    From carouse, from the phrase "drink carouse" being wrongly analyzed as "drink a rouse".

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • an official ceremony over drinks
    • And the King's rouse the heaven shall bruit again,
    Re-speaking earthly thunder. - "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare, act 1 scene 2 lines 127-128
  • A carousal; a festival; a drinking frolic.
  • * Tennyson
    • Fill the cup, and fill the can, / Have a rouse before the morn.
  • wine or other liquor considered an inducement to mirth or drunkenness; a full glass; a bumper.

    • Anagrams

    * English ergative verbs

    distract

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To divert the attention of.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 10, author=David Ornstein, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Arsenal 1-0 Everton , passage=While Gunners boss Arsene Wenger had warned his players against letting the pre-match festivities distract them from the task at hand, they clearly struggled for fluency early on.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Travels and travails , passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.}}
    '

    Related terms

    * distracted * distractible * distracting * distraction

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Separated; drawn asunder.
  • (obsolete) Insane; mad.
    • (Drayton)