You searched for: “muses
Literature and the Arts and Sciences: Muses, Camenae
Greek: Muses (goddesses); Calliope (eloquence and epic poetry, Clio (history), Erato (erotic lyric poetry), Euterpe (music and lyric poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy and pastoral poetry), Urania (astronomy)
Latin: Camenae (nymphs); who possess prophetic powers and inhabit springs and fountains; later identified with the Greek Muses.
muse (s) (noun), muses (pl)
1. Someone who causes another person to have ideas about creating a work of art; or who inspires an artist, writer, etc.: The writer lost his muse when his wife left him.
2. Someone or something that provides the enthusiasm and determination for an artist, poet, musician, etc. to create something artistic: When an artist pleonastically asked her husband if she should paint a still life or a portrait, or both of them on the same canvas; his response was, "Are you trying to amuse your muse with redundancy?"

—Inspired by the "Garfield" cartoon strip by Jim Davis; May 3, 2011;
as seen in The Global Edition of the New York Times, page 15.
This entry is located in the following unit: muse (page 1)
muse (verb), muses; mused, musing
1. To be absorbed in one's thoughts; to engage in meditation: Sharon was musing about what might have been if she had finished her education.
2. To consider or to say thoughtfully: Steve mused that it might take longer to drive than to walk through the park.
3. To think about something in a deep and serious, or dreamy, and abstracted way: Henry mused about the possibility of changing jobs.
4. To say something in a thoughtful or a questioning way: "I think we could sell our house," Lester mused, "but then where would we move to?"
5. To gaze at someone or something thoughtfully or abstractedly: Margaret was musing what her new-born son would grow up to be.
6. Etymology: from Old French muser, "to meditate", and perhaps literally "to go around with one's nose in the air", from muse, "muzzle, snout", from medieval Latin musum source of the English word muzzle.

Muse comes with the meanings of "ponder, meditate," and implies focused attention, but it suggests a less intellectual purpose.

It often implies "absorption" and a "languid turning over of a topic as if in a dream or in some kind of remembrance."

To ponder and to think about something.
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This entry is located in the following unit: muse (page 1)
A unit related to: “muses
(Greek: goddesses of fine arts; including, Calliope, Clio, Erato, Urania, Euterpe, Polyhymnia, Thalia, Melpomene, and Terpsichore)
(Greek: mousike [techne] > Latin: musica, music; originally an art of the Muses)