The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chouse \Chouse\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Choused; p. pr. & vb. n. Chousing.] [From Turk. ch[=a][=u]sh a messenger or interpreter, one of whom, attached to the Turkish embassy, in 1609 cheated the Turkish merchants resident in England out of To cheat, trick, defraud; -- followed by of, or out of; as, to chouse one out of his money. [Colloq.]
The undertaker of the afore-cited poesy hath choused
your highness.
--Landor.
Chouse \Chouse\, n.
One who is easily cheated; a tool; a simpleton; a gull.
--Hudibras.A trick; sham; imposition.
--Johnson.A swindler.
--B. Jonson. [1913 Webster] ||
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"swindler, swindle," 1650s, said to be from Turkish chaush "sergeant, herald, messenger," but the sense connection is obscure.
Wiktionary
Etymology 1 n. 1 One who is easily cheated; a gullible person. 2 A trick; a sham. 3 A swindler. vb. (context transitive English) To cheat, to trick. Etymology 2
alt. 1 (cx US of cattle English) To handle roughly, as by chasing or scaring. 2 (context US regional English) To handle, to take care of. 3 (context transitive US regional English) To cause undesirable activity in livestock, such as running. (from late 19th c.) vb. 1 (cx US of cattle English) To handle roughly, as by chasing or scaring. 2 (context US regional English) To handle, to take care of. 3 (context transitive US regional English) To cause undesirable activity in livestock, such as running. (from late 19th c.)
WordNet
Usage examples of "chouse".
That absurd creature who can’t turn his head because his shirt points are too high, and who let Papa chouse him out of three hundred guineas for a showy chestnut anyone but a flat must have seen was short of bone?
Unknown ladies and gentlemen travelling without their personal servants found it hard to obtain accommodation at any of the best inns in Harrowgate, valets and abigails apparently being regarded by the landlords as insurances against the possibility of being choused out of their due reckonings.
She begged Sylvester not to be choused out of his money by a wicked old lick-penny.
Cruncher, who all this time had been putting on his clothes, "if I ain't, what with piety and one blowed thing and another, been choused this last week into as bad luck as ever a poor devil of a honest tradesman met with!
She was enjoying herself today, well-fed and well-rested, keyed up for the danger ahead but not imminent, her body bumming like that sweet ship Tibo that baster choused her out of.
Whereas formerly I would meekly allow myself to be choused or bullied or put down, I now counter-attack with a confidence and an asperity that quite surprises me and that nearly always answers.
Even so, Keating was much concerned: "If any gouty old fool of a general comes along to snatch the bread out of my mouth again the very moment it is buttered," cries he in a great passion, "I shall sell my commission to the highest bidder, and be d-d to the service: to be choused out of the glory when we have done all the work, would be more than flesh and blood can bear.
I hardly think the notion applies to chousing a cheat out of his ill-gotten gains.
Answer me this: Hast thou ever fibbed a chouse quarrons in the Rome pad for the loure in his bung?