1. (Class. Myth.)
Defn: 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.
Note: 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.
MUSE Muse, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Mused; p. pr. & vb. n. Musing.] Etym: [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.