To sleep lightly, doze, or spend time in a sleepy state; to be half-asleep or drowsy.
From Old English 'drusan' meaning 'to become sluggish or dull'. Related to 'drowsy', the word originally meant to be sluggish or inactive, later becoming specifically about light sleep.
Drowse is one of those words that captures a specific human state that doesn't have a single-word synonym—it's not quite sleep and not quite awake, a state we all experience but English usually needs multiple words to describe!
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