muse

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (intransitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

muse, n. [From F. musse. See Muset.].

 A gap or hole in a hedge, hence, wall, or the like, through which a wild animal is accustomed to pass; a muset.  [1913 Webster]
"Find a hare without a muse."  [1913 Webster]

muse, n. [F. Muse, L. Musa, Gr. . Cf. Mosaic, n., Music.].

•  One of the nine goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who presided over song and the different kinds of poetry, and also the arts and sciences; -- often used in the plural. At one time certain other goddesses were considered as muses.  [1913 Webster]

  " The names of the Muses and the arts they presided over were: Calliope (Epic poetry), Clio (History), Erato (Lyric poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene (Tragedy), Polymnia or Polyhymnia (religious music), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy)."  [1913 Webster]

  "Granville commands; your aid, O Muses, bring:
  What Muse for Granville can refuse to sing?"  [1913 Webster]
•  A particular power and practice of poetry; the inspirational genius of a poet.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  A poet; a bard.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]

muse, v. i. [F. muser to loiter or trifle, orig., to stand with open mouth, fr. LL. musus, morsus, muzzle, snout, fr. L. morsus a biting, bite, fr. mordere to bite. See Morsel, and cf. Amuse, Muzzle, n.].

•  To think closely; to study in silence; to meditate.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

  "He mused upon some dangerous plot."  [1913 Webster]
•  To be absent in mind; to be so occupied in study or contemplation as not to observe passing scenes or things present; to be in a brown study.  Daniel.  [1913 Webster]
•  To wonder.  Spenser. B. Jonson.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- To consider; meditate; ruminate. See Ponder.

muse, v. t. 

•  To think on; to meditate on.  [1913 Webster]

  "Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise."  [1913 Webster]
•  To wonder at.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

muse, n. 

•  Contemplation which abstracts the mind from passing scenes; absorbing thought; hence, absence of mind; a brown study.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]
•  Wonder, or admiration.  Spenser.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

muse, n.
1 (as the Muses) (in Greek and Roman mythology) nine goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who inspire poetry, music, drama, etc.
2 (usu. prec. by the) a a poet's inspiring goddess. b a poet's genius.

muse, v. & n. literary
--v.
1 intr. a (usu. foll. by on, upon) ponder, reflect. b (usu. foll. by on) gaze meditatively (on a scene etc.).
2 tr. say meditatively.
--n. archaic a fit of abstraction.

Etymology

ME f. OF muser to waste time f. Rmc perh. f. med.L musum muzzle

THESAURUS

muse

Apollo, Apollo Musagetes, Bragi, Calliope, Castilian Spring, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Geist, Helicon, Hippocrene, Melpomene, Orpheus, Parnassus, Pierian Spring, Pierides, Polyhymnia, Polymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, afflatus, artistic imagination, conception, creative imagination, creative power, creative thought, creativity, daemon, daimonion, demon, divine afflatus, esemplastic imagination, esemplastic power, fire of genius, genius, inspiration, muse, mythicization, mythification, mythopoeia, poesy, poetic genius, poetic imagination, sacred Nine, shaping imagination, soul, spirit, talent, the Muses, the Nine, tuneful Nine

ROGET THESAURUS

muse

Poetry

N poetry, poetics, poesy, Muse, Calliope, tuneful Nine, Parnassus, Helicon, Pierides, Pierian spring, versification, rhyming, making verses, prosody, orthometry, poem, epic, epic poem, epopee, epopoea, ode, epode, idyl, lyric, eclogue, pastoral, bucolic, dithyramb, anacreontic, sonnet, roundelay, rondeau, rondo, madrigal, canzonet, cento, monody, elegy, amoebaeum, ghazal, palinode, dramatic poetry, lyric poetry, opera, posy, anthology, disjecta membra poetae song, ballad, lay, love song, drinking song, war song, sea song, lullaby, music, nursery rhymes, doggerel, Hudibrastic verse, prose run mad, macaronics, macaronic verse, leonine verse, runes, canto, stanza, distich, verse, line, couplet, triplet, quatrain, strophe, antistrophe, verse, rhyme, assonance, crambo, meter, measure, foot, numbers, strain, rhythm, accentuation, dactyl, spondee, trochee, anapest, hexameter, pentameter, Alexandrine, anacrusis, antispast, blank verse, ictus, elegiacs, elegiac verse, elegaic meter, elegaic poetry, poet, poet laureate, laureate, bard, lyrist, scald, skald, troubadour, trouvere, minstrel, minnesinger, meistersinger, improvisatore, versifier, sonneteer, rhymer, rhymist, rhymester, ballad monger, runer, poetaster, genus irritabile vatum, poetic, poetical, lyric, lyrical, tuneful, epic, dithyrambic, metrical, a catalectin, elegiac, iambic, trochaic, anapestic, amoebaeic, Melibean, skaldic, Ionic, Sapphic, Alcaic, Pindaric, a poem round and perfect as a star, Dichtung und Wahrheit, furor poeticus, his virtues formed the magic of his song, I do but sing because I must, I learnt life from the poets, licentia vatum, mutum est pictura poema, O for a muse of fire!, sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge, the true poem is the poet's mind, Volk der Dichter und Denker, wisdom married to immortal verse.

Thought

VB think, reflect, cogitate, excogitate, consider, deliberate, bestow thought upon, bestow consideration upon, speculate, contemplate, meditate, ponder, muse, dream, ruminate, brood over, con over, animadvert, study, bend the mind, apply the mind, digest, discuss, hammer at, weigh, perpend, realize, appreciate, fancy, trow, take into consideration, take counsel, commune with oneself, bethink oneself, collect one's thoughts, revolve in the mind, turn over in the mind, run over in the mind, chew the cud upon, sleep upon, take counsel of one's pillow, advise with one's pillow, rack one's brains, ransack one's brains, crack one's brains, beat one's brains, cudgel one's brains, set one's brain to work, set one's wits to work, harbor an idea, entertain an idea, cherish an idea, nurture an idea, take into one's head, bear in mind, reconsider, occur, present itself, suggest itself, come into one's head, get into one's head, strike one, flit across the view, come uppermost, run in one s head, enter the mind, pass in the mind, cross the mind, flash on the mind, flash across the mind, float in the mind, fasten itself on the mind, be uppermost in the mind, occupy the mind, have in one's mind, make an impression, sink into the mind, penetrate into the mind, engross the thoughts.