muse

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To be absorbed in one's thoughts; engage in thought.
• intransitive verb To consider or say thoughtfully.
• noun A state of reflection.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of musing; meditation; reverie; absent-mindedness; contemplative thought.
• noun Wonder; surprise.
• To ponder; meditate; reflect continuously and in silence; be in a brown study.
• To be astonished; be surprised; wonder.
• To gaze meditatively.
• Synonyms Meditate, reflect, etc. (see list under contemplate), cogitate, ruminate, brood.
• To meditate on; think of reflectively.
• To wonder at.
• noun An opening in a fence through which a hare or other game is accustomed to pass. Also muset.
• noun A loophole; a means of escape.
• noun The mouthpiece or wind-pipe of a bagpipe. Also written smuse.
• noun In Greek myth, one of the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who according to the earliest writers were goddesses of memory, then inspiring goddesses of song, and according to later ideas divinities presiding over the different kinds of poetry, and over the sciences and arts, while at the same time having as their especial province springs and limpid streams.
• noun [cap. or lowercase] An inspiring power; poetic inspiration: often spoken of and apostrophized by poets as a goddess.
• noun A poet; a bard.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Class. Myth.) One of the nine goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who presided over song and the different kinds of poetry, and also the arts and sciences; -- often used in the plural. At one time certain other goddesses were considered as muses.
• noun A particular power and practice of poetry; the inspirational genius of a poet.
• noun rare A poet; a bard.
• intransitive verb To think closely; to study in silence; to meditate.
• intransitive verb 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.
• intransitive verb obsolete To wonder.
• noun A gap or hole in a hedge, hence, wall, or the like, through which a wild animal is accustomed to pass; a muset.
• noun Contemplation which abstracts the mind from passing scenes; absorbing thought; hence, absence of mind; a brown study.
• noun obsolete Wonder, or admiration.
• transitive verb To think on; to meditate on.
• transitive verb obsolete To wonder at.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A source of inspiration.
• noun archaic A poet.
• verb intransitive To become lost in thought, to ponder.
• verb transitive To say (something) with due consideration or thought.
• noun An act of musing; a period of thoughtfulness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the source of an artist's inspiration
• noun in ancient Greek mythology any of 9 daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne; protector of an art or science
• verb reflect deeply on a subject