I. muse 1 /mjuːz/ BrE AmE verb
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: muser , from muse 'mouth of an animal' ; ⇨ ↑ muzzle 1 ]
1 . [transitive] 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] to think about something for a long time SYN ponder
muse on/over/about/upon
He mused on how different his life would have been, had he not met Louisa.
—musing noun [uncountable and countable] :
her gloomy musings
—musingly adverb
II. muse 2 BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: French ; Origin: Latin Musa , from Greek Mousa ]
1 . someone’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 muse
2 . ( also Muse ) one of the nine ancient Greek goddesses who each represented a particular art or science:
the Muse of History