MUSE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Muse

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noun

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

Muse n.

(Class. Myth.) 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. "Granville commands; your aid, O Muses, bring: What Muse for Granville can refuse to sing?" Note: 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).

A particular power and practice of poetry; the inspirational genius of a poet.

A poet; a bard. (R.)

Muse n.

Contemplation which abstracts the mind from passing scenes; absorbing thought; hence, absence of mind; a brown study.

Wonder, or admiration. (Obs.)

verb

Muse v. t.

To think on; to meditate on. "Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise."

To wonder at. (Obs.)

Muse v. i. (past & past part. mused; pres. part. musing)

To think closely; to study in silence; to meditate. "Thereon mused he." "He mused upon some dangerous plot."

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.

To wonder. (Obs.)

Synonyms: To consider; meditate; ruminate. See Ponder.

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Etymology of 'Muse'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Muse" Quotes from Famous Books

... harmony in them that is charming, and a delicacy in the thoughts that no Scotchman is capable of, though a Scotchwoman might inspire it.[1] I beg, both for Cynthia's sake and my own, that you would continue your De Tristibus till I have an opportunity of seeing your muse, and she of rewarding her: Reprens la musette, berger amoureux! If Cynthia has ever travelled ten miles in fairy-land, she must be wondrous content with the person and qualifications of her knight, who in future story will be read of thus: Elmedorus was tall and perfectly ...

— Letters of Horace Walpole - Volume I • Horace Walpole

... it?" Ballantyne repeated. "I ask myself that," and he took the photograph out of Thresk's hands and sat in a sort of muse, staring at it. Then he turned it over and took the edge between his forefinger and his thumb, hesitating whether he would not even at this moment tear it into strips and have done with it. But in the end he cast it upon ...

— Witness For The Defense • A.E.W. Mason

... what a difference it would have made! He would have been able to do a number of things he had never done, things which he had always desired to do. He had desired above all to travel—to see France and Italy; to linger, to muse in the shadows of the world's past; and after this he had desired marriage, an English wife, an English home, beautiful children, leisure, the society of friends. A successful play would have given him all these things, and now his dream must remain for ever unrealised ...

— Vain Fortune • George Moore

... to a vine-clad arbor adorned with mirrors, monograms, flowers, and wreaths, and listened to a concert of vocal and instrumental music, French and German; then they went further into the garden, stopping before a Temple of Glory, where were four handsome women representing Victory, the muse Clio, and Renown; then trumpets sounded, triumphal songs were sung, and perfumes were burning on golden tripods. Then they turned to see a delightful ballet danced on the greensward, with a view of the Palace of Laxenburg—so dear to Marie Louise—in the background; that done, they entered the ...

— The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise • Imbert De Saint-Amand

... with, one may dare to speak in plain English. I am all for the little rivers. Let those who will, chant in heroic verse the renown of Amazon and Mississippi and Niagara, but my prose shall flow—or straggle along at such a pace as the prosaic muse may grant me to attain—in praise of Beaverkill and Neversink and Swiftwater, of Saranac and Raquette and Ausable, of Allegash and Aroostook and Moose River. "Whene'er I take my walks abroad," it shall be to trace the clear Rauma from its rise on the fjeld to its rest in the fjord; ...

— Little Rivers - A Book Of Essays In Profitable Idleness • Henry van Dyke

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