muse — English Dictionary

Noun

1. Of a person: a source of inspiration.

   Examples

   Yoko Ono was John Lennon's wife, lover, and muse.

2. A poet; a bard.

   Usage

   • Archaic

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   My toung-tide Muſe in manners holds her ſtill, While comments of your praiſe richly compil'd, Reſerue their Character with goulden quill, And precious phraſe by all the Muſes fil’d.

   So may some gentle Muse With lucky words favour my destined urn

Verb

1. To become lost in thought, to ponder.

   Usage

   • Intransitive

2. To say (something) with due consideration or thought.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   When I asked about her affinity for playing self-obsessed artists, O’Hara mused: “Maybe I’m just trying to get it out of my system. I’m so afraid to be like that.”

   For quotations using this term, see Citations:muse.

3. To think on; to meditate on.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise.

   More examples (1)

   It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.

4. To wonder at.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed; for what I will, I will, and there an end.

Noun

1. An act of musing; a period of thoughtfulness.

   Examples

   still he sate long time astonished / As in great muse, ne word to creature spake.

   And with this Alan fell into a muse, and for a long time sate^([sic]) very sad and silent.

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   He fell into a muse and pulled his upper lip.

Noun

1. A gap or hole in a hedge, fence, etc. through which a wild animal is accustomed to pass; a muset.

   Examples

   Find a hare without a muse. (old proverb)

Noun

1. the source of an artist's inspiration

   Broader terms

   sourceseedgerm

   Examples

   Euterpe was his muse

Verb

1. reflect deeply on a subject

   Synonyms

   chew overthink overmeditateponderexcogitatecontemplatereflectmullmull overruminatespeculate

   Broader terms

   thinkcogitatecerebrate

   Examples

   I mulled over the events of the afternoon

   philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years

   More examples (1)

   The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate