drowse

Etymology

From Middle English *drousen, from Old English drūsan, drūsian (“to sink; become low, slow, or inactive; droop; drowse; become feeble”), probably from a merger of Proto-Germanic *drūsijaną (“to look down; mourn”) and Proto-Germanic *dreusaną (“to fall”). Cognate with Dutch drozen (“to doze; muse”), German trauern (“to mourn, be sad”), Danish drøse (“to slow down, be negligent”), Norwegian døse (“to drowse”), Swedish drösa (“to be slow”), Old English drēosan ("to rush; fall; perish"; > Middle English dresen (“to fall down”)), Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌹𐌿𐍃𐌰𐌽 (driusan, “to fall; fall down”).

verb

1. (intransitive, also figurative) To be sleepy and inactive.
   Under the aching noonday glare, when the green things drooped and the birds withdrew to the depths of the forest, and all nature drowsed, his great "Ha! ha!" and "Ho! ho!" rose up to the sky and challenged the sun. 1902, Jack London, Moon-Face
   In August the cicadas chorused, and the dusty olive trees drowsed in the sun. 1973 July, Melville Bell Grosvenor, “Homeward with Ulysses”, in National Geographic, volume 144, number 1
2. (intransitive) To nod off; to fall asleep.
3. (transitive) To advance drowsily. (Used especially in the phrase "drowse one's way" ⇒ sleepily make one's way.)
   […] the wary tadpole returned from exile, the bullfrog resumed his ancient song, the tranquil turtle sunned his back upon bank and log and drowsed his grateful life away as in the old sweet days of yore. 1873, Mark Twain, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1915 republication), page 285
   Congreve held fast to the Greek poets, but otherwise seems to have drowsed his way through Trinity studies. 1966, John Cunyus Hodges, William Congreve, the man: a biography from new sources, page 25
   Ida had kept him awake while he drowsed his way up the old King's Trace in eastern Missouri, feverish and weak. 2002, Marsha Ward, The Man from Shenandoah, page 55
   They were led into a large, attractive room with twin massage beds, and welcomed by their masseurs—in Balinese tradition, he had a male masseur, Anna a female. He drowsed his way through the first half hour of the treatment, […] 2008, Sarah Mayberry, “Cruise Control”, in Best of Makeovers Bundle, page 209
4. (transitive) To make heavy with sleepiness or imperfect sleep; to make dull or stupid.

noun

1. The state of being sleepy and inactive.
   in a drowse