douse

Douse is a verb meaning to pour liquid over something to wet it thoroughly or to extinguish a fire by applying a large amount of liquid, most commonly water. It can also mean to drench someone or something, or to extinguish a flame. The word can be used transitively ("douse the flames") or intransitively ("the lights were doused"). The past tense is doused and the present participle is dousing.

Etymology is uncertain; earliest English uses date from the 16th century, with possible connections to dialectal forms related to plunging or soaking, but there is no definitive consensus on its origin.

Usage notes: In firefighting, dousing with water is effective on many ordinary combustibles but can worsen oil or grease fires and must be avoided on electrical equipment. For grease fires, use a suitable extinguisher or smother the fire with a lid or other non-water method. For general wetting, dousing describes the act of thoroughly wetting a surface, object, or person with liquid.

Related terms include drench, soak, and saturate, which share the core idea of applying liquid to achieve wetting or soaking. Douse remains a common term in both everyday language and firefighting contexts, with its exact meaning driven by the material being treated and the chosen extinguishing or wetting method.