2 meanings
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1 —as in:
her musings
Definition
reflect (think) deeply on a subject — perhaps aloud- He mused aloud about the afternoon's developments.
mused = reflected (thought) deeply
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- Let me muse on it on a while and I'll get back to you.
- I muse we met not with the Dauphin's grace,Shakespeare, William -- King Henry VI, Part 1
- Before Max could muse on this, the door opened and the figure slipped inside the cell.Henry H. Neff -- The Fiend And The Forge
- An hour passed, maybe two with Max sitting quietly and musing on his life.Henry H. Neff -- The Maelstrom
- We mused over the thought for a while and soon the quiet stretched into long minutesMaureen Daly -- Seventeenth Summer
- Still Theresa mused all night, and the next day too.Gish Jen -- Typical American
- This would not do, I mused, as the class proceeded with its sums.Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Not only because I've never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl.Anne Frank -- The Diary of a Young Girl
- Not Shade's usual style, she mused...Nora Roberts -- Summer Pleasures
muse = reflect (think) deeply
muse = think (reflect) — sometimes (and typically by this author) aloud
musing = reflecting (thinking) deeply on a subject
mused = reflected (thought) deeply on a subject
mused = thought (reflected deeply) on a subject
mused = thought
musings = thoughts
mused = thought
2 —as in:
She was his muse
Definition
the source of an artist's inspiration - especially a person or mythological goddess- She was his muse. He hasn't written anything of quality since she left.
muse = the source of an artist's inspiration
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- She is my muse. She inspired all the songs on that album.
- The most potent muse of all is our own inner child.Stephen Nachmanovitch
- Each is as true today as it will always be, and for Nathaniel the music is both medicine and muse, no less an inspiration now than it was before his fall.Steve Lopez -- The Soloist
- But on that fateful day, the thought of taking scalpel to Sister Mary Joseph Praise—his surgical assistant, his closest confidante, his typist, his muse, and the woman he realized he loved—terrified him.Abraham Verghese -- Cutting for Stone
- I can name the nine Muses and the seven loves of Zeus.Anne Frank -- The Diary of a Young Girl
- Nathaniel plays Bach and Beethoven as if he's a young student again, the music filled with a sense of urgency and possibility. Every few minutes he turns toward the dresser, checking in with his mother and his muse.Steve Lopez -- The Soloist
- Wouldn't you really like to be a tenth Muse, then, Maggie?Eliot, George -- The Mill on the Floss
- My Muse may be excused if she is silent henceforth.Thoreau, Henry David -- Walden & on the Duty of Civil Disobedience
- Leslie sits like the muse of tragedy; Owen Ford jokes and laughs on the surface, and watches Leslie with the eyes of his soul.Montgomery, Lucy Maud -- Anne's House of Dreams
muse = the source of an artist's inspiration
muse = source of inspiration
muse = source of inspiration
muses = mythological goddesses thought to inspire artists
Less commonly:
More rarely, Muse or muses may refer to the 9 mythological goddesses of art. Much more rarely, muse is used as a synonym for "poet".