From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmusemuse1 /mjuːz/ verb 1 [transitive]SAY to say something in a way that shows you are thinking about it carefully ‘Somewhere, ’ he mused, ‘I’ve heard your name before.’2 [intransitive]THINK ABOUT to think about something for a long time SYN pondermuse on/over/about/upon He mused on how different his life would have been, had he not met Louisa. —musing noun [countable, uncountable] her gloomy musings —musingly adverb→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
muse• How different things seem with a little light on the subject, I mused.• What a doleful and mocking funeral, Ishmael muses.• A number of key executives mused aloud on the prospect of early retirement.• Three cheers for Nantucket, he muses, and the Devil do what he will with me.• Otherwise, Shamlou mused, he resembled a photographic negative.• Repeating the title, we muse over what the book will probably be about.• "I wonder why she was killed, " mused Poirot.• Perhaps, mused the pundits, he is needed now - at the very top.muse on/over/about/upon• It ends with her musing about buying a pink scarf because her granddaughter likes pink.• I start musing on how it is we do find ourselves on the same side.• Louis and I would go out for walks and muse about Ibsen.• He mused over it, thinking about Blackbeard's sweat and his icy rage.• Keeler has been musing on the nature of weediness and the likelihood of it evolving among engineered crops.• In its aftermath, he muses on the sort of films he should be making.• Maybe a goodbye photo, I mused on the way over.• Newland Archer, as he mused on these things, had once more turned his eyes toward the Mingott box.musemuse2 noun [countable] 1 AIDEAsomeone’s muse is the force or person that makes them want to write, paint, or make music, and helps them to have good ideas SYN inspiration Rossetti’s wife and creative muse2 (also Muse) one of the nine ancient Greek goddesses who each represented a particular art or science the Muse of HistoryExamples from the Corpus
muse• She still puts in occasional appearances, Graves concluded in all sincerity, as a muse to poets like himself!• It is profitable, but it leaves the comic muse high and dry.• Soon she is up in the studio mixing his paints and dreaming of becoming her master's muse.• At times like that do you despair, turn to drink to try and coax back the muse?• Maud Gonne was the muse of W.B. Yeats, the Irish poet.Origin muse1 (1300-1400) Old French muser, from muse “mouth of an animal”; → MUZZLE1 muse2 (1300-1400) French Latin Musa, from Greek Mousa 