Legal Writing

Let?s Party!

By Maeve

From a reader comes the question:

Could you cover the term ‘carousing’ and how to use it correctly, along with other party-related terms? Thanks!

Carousing suggests noisy, drunken celebration. People leaving bars singing and shouting can be said to be carousing.

Examples:
The neighbors caroused into the early morning hours.
Jack and his friends were carousing in Florida when the accident occurred.

The word comes from Middle French carousser “drink, quaff, swill.” Swill, as a verb, suggests piggish over-indulgence: He swilled one drink after another.

Here are some other expressions, some of them euphemisms, for partying in the sense of over-indulging in drink or other mood-enhancers.

celebrate
party
party down
rave it up
make merry
paint the town (paint the town red)
whoop it up
let your hair down
live it up
have a ball
have a wild time
have an orgy (connotes sexual indulgence as well as inebriation)

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Let’s Party!

Full post as published by Daily Writing Tips on May 14, 2009 (boomark / email).