dowse dauz, v. Also dowze,
douse. [Derivation unknown; app. a dialect term.] intr. To use
the divining- or dowsing-rod in search of subterraneous supplies of water
or mineral veins.
Hence
'dowsing vbl.
sb.;
dowser dau.z<e>r, one who uses
the divining-rod, a water-diviner;
dowsing-rod,
the rod or twig used by dowsers.
1691
Locke Lower. Interest 40 Not of the nature of the deusing-rod, or
virgula divina, able to discover mines of gold and silver.
1838 Mrs. Bray Tradit.
Devonsh. III. 260 The superstition relative to the dowsing or
divining rod, and the dowsers themselves, is too well known to be noticed
here.
1865 R. Hunt Pop. Rom.
W. Eng. Ser. i. Introd. 20 The divining or dowzing rod is certainly
not older than the German miners, who were brought over by Queen
Elizabeth to teach the Cornish to work their mines.
1869 Eng. Mech. 31 Dec. 380
1 The `dowsing' or `divining' rod is a forked stick of some fruit-bearing
wood, generally hazel, held by the extremity of each prong of the fork in
a peculiar way.
1888
Standard 22 Dec., These authorities [Hastings Board of Guardians]
lately invoked the aid of a `Dowser', or water diviner, to tell them
where to sink a well.
1894
Daily News 28 Dec. 5/2 The dry summer of 1893 brought the Divining
Rod forward..`dowsers' sought for water with the mystic `twig', and, very
often, found it.
1894 Daily
News, 28 Dec. 5/2 Instances are adduced of ladies who have
tried..and found that they could `dowse'.