Muse

Pronunciation

• enPR: myoÍžoz, IPA: /mjuːz/
• Homophones: mews, Meuse
• Rhymes: -uːz

From Middle French muse, from Latin Mūsa, from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα.

Full definition of muse

Noun

1. A source of inspiration.
2. (archaic) A poet; a bard.

Usage notes

The plural musae can also be found, though it is much rarer than muses.

Related terms

• museum
• music

First attested in 1340. From Old French muser.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To become lost in thought, to ponder.
2. (transitive) To say (something) with due consideration or thought.
3. (transitive) To think on; to meditate on.
• unknown date ThomsonCome, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise.
• 2013-06-07, David Simpson, Fantasy of navigation, It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in the basket 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. (transitive) To wonder at.

Synonyms

Related terms

• muser
• musing

Noun

1. An act of musing; a period of thoughtfulness.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.xii:still he sate long time astonished
  As in great muse, ne word to creature spake.
• 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 Avignon Quintet, p. 416:He fell into a muse and pulled his upper lip.

From French musse. See muset.

Noun

1. A gap or hole in a hedge, fence, etc. through which a wild animal is accustomed to pass; a muset.Find a hare without a muse. (old proverb)

Anagrams

• emus, umes