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.
Find a hare without a muse.
Old Prov.
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Muse, n. [F. Muse, L. Musa, Gr. . Cf. Mosaic, n., Music.]
1. Class. Myth.
One of the nine goddesses who presided over song and the different kinds of poetry, and also the arts and sciences; -- often used in the plural.
Granville commands; your aid, O Muses, bring:
What Muse for Granville can refuse to sing?
Pope.
⇒ The names of the Muses were Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polymnia or Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania.
2.
A particular power and practice of poetry.
Shak.
3.
A poet; a bard.
[R.]
Milton.
© Webster 1913.
Muse, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Mused (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Musing.] [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.]
1.
To think closely; to study in silence; to meditate.
"Thereon
mused he."
Chaucer.
He mused upon some dangerous plot.
Sir P. Sidney.
2.
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.
3.
To wonder.
[Obs.]
Spenser. B. Jonson.
Syn. -- To consider; meditate; ruminate. See Ponder.
© Webster 1913.
Muse, v. t.
1.
To think on; to meditate on.
Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise.
Thomson.
2.
To wonder at.
[Obs.]
Shak.
© Webster 1913.
Muse, n.
1.
Contemplation which abstracts the mind from passing scenes; absorbing thought; hence, absence of mind; a brown study.
Milton.
2.
Wonder, or admiration.
[Obs.]
Spenser.
© Webster 1913.