muse

See also: Muse, musé, musė, muše, and Muße

English

WOTD – 27 February 2008
Three musæ Clio, Euterpe, and Thalia

Pronunciation

  • enPR: myo͞oz
    • (UK) IPA(key): /mjuːz/
    • (US) IPA(key): /mjuz/
    • Audio (US)(file)
  • Homophones: mews, Meuse
  • Rhymes: -uːz

Etymology 1

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

Noun

muse (plural muses)

  1. A source of inspiration.
  2. (archaic) A poet; a bard.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)
Usage notes
  • The plural musae can also be found, though it is much rarer than muses.
Synonyms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English musen, from Old French muser.

Verb

muse (third-person singular simple present muses, present participle musing, simple past and past participle mused)

  1. (intransitive) To become lost in thought, to ponder.
  2. (transitive) To say (something) with due consideration or thought.
    • For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:muse.
  3. (transitive) To think on; to meditate on.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Thomson
      Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise.
    • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
      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. (transitive) To wonder at.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
Synonyms
  • See also Thesaurus:ponder
Translations

Noun

muse (plural muses)

  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.

Etymology 3

From French musse. See muset.

Noun

muse (plural muses)

  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

French

Pronunciation

Noun

muse f (plural muses)

  1. artistic inspiration
  2. muse (specific artistic subject)

Verb

muse

  1. first-person singular present indicative of muser
  2. third-person singular present indicative of muser
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of muser
  4. first-person singular present subjunctive of muser
  5. second-person singular imperative of muser

Anagrams

Italian

Noun

muse f

  1. plural of musa

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

muse

  1. Alternative form of mous

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From French musée, from Latin mūsēum, from Ancient Greek Μουσεῖον (Mouseîon)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mʉ.seː/, [mʉʷ.ˈseː]

Noun

muse n (definite singular museet, indefinite plural muse or museer, definite plural museene or musea)

  1. Alternative form of musé

References

“muse” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From French musée, from Latin mūsēum, from Ancient Greek Μουσεῖον (Mouseîon)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mʉ.seː/, [mʉʷ.ˈseː]

Noun

muse n (definite singular museet, indefinite plural muse, definite plural musea)

  1. Alternative form of musé

References

“muse” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Spanish

Verb

muse

  1. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of musirse.
  2. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present indicative form of musirse.
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