Adjacent Words

Ruminate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

RU'MINATE, v.i. [L. rumino, from rumen, the cud.]
1. To chew the cud; to chew again what has been slightly chewed and swallowed. Oxen, sheep, deer, goats, camels, hares and squirrels ruminate in fact; other animals, as moles, bees, crickets, beetles, crabs, etc. only appear to ruminate.
The only animals endowed with the genuine faculty of rumination, are the Ruminantia, or cloven-hoofed quadrupeds, but the hare, although its stomach is differently organized, is an occasional and partial ruminant.
2. To muse; to meditate; to think again and again; to ponder. It is natural to ruminate on misfortunes.
He practices a slow meditation, and ruminates on the subject.
RU'MINATE, v.t.
1. To chew over again.
2. To muse on; to meditate over and over again.
Mad with desire, she ruminates her sin.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: chew the cuds; "cows ruminate"
2: reflect deeply on a subject; "I mulled over the events of the afternoon"; "philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years"; "The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate" [syn: chew over, think over, meditate, ponder, excogitate, contemplate, muse, reflect, mull, mull over, ruminate, speculate]

Merriam Webster's

verb (-nated; -nating) Etymology: Latin ruminatus, past participle of ruminari to chew the cud, muse upon, from rumin-, rumen rumen; perhaps akin to Sanskrit romantha act of chewing the cud Date: 1533 transitive verb 1. to go over in the mind repeatedly and often casually or slowly 2. to chew repeatedly for an extended period intransitive verb 1. to chew again what has been chewed slightly and swallowed ; chew the cud 2. to engage in contemplation ; reflect Synonyms: see ponder • rumination noun • ruminative adjective • ruminatively adverb • ruminator noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. 1 tr. & (foll. by over, on, etc.) intr. meditate, ponder. 2 intr. (of ruminants) chew the cud. Derivatives: rumination n. ruminative adj. ruminatively adv. ruminator n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ruminate Ru"mi*nate, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Ruminated; p. pr. & vb. n. Ruminating.] [L. ruminatus, p. p. of ruminari, ruminare, fr. rumen, -inis, throat, akin to ructare to belch, erugere to belch out, Gr. ?, AS. roccettan.] 1. To chew the cud; to chew again what has been slightly chewed and swallowed. ``Cattle free to ruminate.'' --Wordsworth. 2. Fig.: To think again and again; to muse; to meditate; to ponder; to reflect. --Cowper. Apart from the hope of the gospel, who is there that ruminates on the felicity of heaven? --I. Taylor.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ruminate Ru"mi*nate, v. t. 1. To chew over again. 2. Fig.: To meditate or ponder over; to muse on. Mad with desire, she ruminates her sin. --Dryden. What I know Is ruminated, plotted, and set down. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ruminate Ru"mi*nate, Ruminated Ru"mi*na`ted, a. (Bot.) Having a hard albumen penetrated by irregular channels filled with softer matter, as the nutmeg and the seeds of the North American papaw.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(ruminates, ruminating, ruminated) 1. If you ruminate on something, you think about it very carefully. (FORMAL) He ruminated on the terrible wastage that typified American life... VERB: V on/about/over n 2. When animals ruminate, they bring food back from their stomach into their mouth and chew it again. (TECHNICAL) VERB

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. n. 1. Chew the cud. 2. Muse, meditate, ponder, cogitate, think, reflect. II. v. a. Meditate, chew, muse on, reflect upon, ponder upon, think about, brood over, chew the cud upon.

Moby Thesaurus

be abstracted, bite, brood, brood over, champ, chaw, chew, chew over, chew the cud, chew up, chomp, chump, con over, consider, contemplate, crunch, debate, deliberate, deliberate over, deliberate upon, digest, excogitate, gnash, gnaw, grind, gum, introspect, masticate, meditate, meditate upon, mouth, mull over, mumble, munch, muse, muse on, muse over, nibble, perpend, play around with, play with, ponder, ponder over, reflect, reflect over, revolve, roll, ruminate over, run over, scrunch, speculate, study, think over, toy with, turn over, weigh