# muse
## English
### Pronunciation

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

### Etymology 1

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

#### Noun

muse (plural muses)
* (of people) A source of inspiration.
    Yoko Ono was John Lennon's wife, lover, and muse.
* (archaic) A poet; a bard.
** 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 85”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:My toung-tide Muſe in manners holds her ſtill, While comments of your praiſe richly compil'd, Reſerue their Character with goulden quill, And precious phraſe by all the Muſes fil’d.
** 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:So may some gentle Muse With lucky words favour my destined urn

##### Synonyms

* (source of inspiration): Pierian spring

##### Related terms

* museum
* music

##### 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)
* (intransitive) To become lost in thought, to ponder.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ponder
* (transitive) To say (something) with due consideration or thought.
** For quotations using this term, see Citations:muse.
* (transitive) To think on; to meditate on.
** c. 1726, James Thomson, Hymn: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.
* (transitive) To wonder at.
** c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed; for what I will, I will, and there an end.

##### Related terms

* muser
* musing
* amuse

##### Translations
#### Noun

muse (plural muses)
* An act of musing; a period of thoughtfulness.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:still he sate long time astonished / As in great muse, ne word to creature spake.
** 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:And with this Alan fell into a muse, and for a long time sate very sad and silent.
** 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)
* 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

* Semu, emus, umes

## French
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /myz/
* Audio:(file)
* Homophones: musent, muses

### Noun

muse f (plural muses)
* artistic inspiration
* muse (specific artistic subject)

### Verb

muse
* inflection of muser:
** first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
** second-person singular imperative

### Further reading

* “muse”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* émus, meus, mues, seum

## Italian
### Noun

muse f
* plural of musa

### Anagrams

* sume

## Middle English
### Etymology 1
#### Noun

muse
* Alternative form of mous

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

muse
* Alternative form of Muse

### Etymology 3
#### Verb

muse
* Alternative form of musen

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /mʉ.seː/, [mʉʷ.ˈseː]

### Noun

muse n (definite singular museet, indefinite plural muse or museer, definite plural museene or musea)
* Alternative form of musé

### References

* “muse” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

## Norwegian Nynorsk
### Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa).

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /²mʉː.sə/

#### Noun

muse f (definite singular musa, indefinite plural muser, definite plural musene)
* a muse

### Etymology 2
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /²mʉː.sə/

#### Verb

muse (present tense musar, past tense musa, past participle musa, passive infinitive musast, present participle musande, imperative muse/mus)
* to whisper
    Synonym: kviskre

### Etymology 3

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

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /mʉ.seː/, [mʉʷ.ˈseː]

#### Noun

muse n (definite singular museet, indefinite plural muse, definite plural musea)
* alternative spelling of musé

### References

* “muse” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

## Spanish
### Verb

muse
* only used in se muse, third-person singular present indicative of musirse
* only used in te ... muse, syntactic variant of músete, second-person singular imperative of musirse