ruminate

present singular third person ruminates · participle present ruminating · participle past ruminated · past ruminated · first person past singular ruminated · archaic present second person singular ruminatest · past second person singular ruminated · archaic past second person singular ruminatedst · present singular third person ruminates · archaic present singular third person ruminateth · past singular third person ruminated · past plural ruminated · past subjunctive ruminated · participle present ruminating · participle past ruminated

1. intransitiveTo chew cud. (Said of ruminants.) Involves regurgitating partially digested food from the rumen.

   A camel will ruminate just as a cow will.

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   There is surely some point beyond which the acquisition of other men’s thoughts must not be carried. This we say for the sake of those helluones librorum, who read forever and without stint; browsing as diligently as oxen in the green herbage of rich meads, but, unlike these, never lying down to ruminate. Life is too short, Art is too long, for a human mind to make perpetual accretion of book-learning, without halt. Sufflaminandum est.

   1861, James W[addell] Alexander, “Remarks on the Studies and Discipline of the Preacher”, in S. D. A[lexander], editor, Thoughts on Preaching: Being Contributions to Homiletics, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner, […], →OCLC, page 181

2. intransitiveTo meditate or reflect.

   I didn't answer right away because I needed to ruminate first.

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   Yet do thou cherish thy Partner, whilst her innocent Eyes are gazing on the Green Garment, that covereth the Surface of her Illapidable Virginity, ruminating upon the Departure of her nearest and dearest Friend [...] In that Day, thee wilt see with the Eye of Flesh; but if thee pursues it farther, to know whether she be Lapidable, or not, thee art certainly a Tyrant: For the Hammer of thy Loins, will at length beat down the Fortress of her Porto Bello; and the Pillars of her Tabernace will be spread abroad, until thee hast plundered the City, and taken the Precious Stones away.

   1744, James Carson, Jemmy Carson’s collections: being a revival of his own labours and lucubrations, for thirty years past; with pieces upon different subjects, by several hands, Dublin

   In the present case, therefore, it now comes closer and closer, in thought, to the first finite; but before taking hold of it, and determining to explore it, the mind proposes, and ruminates, certain middle questions, touching the actual existence of a nexus, and the possibility there is, of discovering the nature, and quality of the nexus, which subsists between the cause, and the causate, or between the infinite, and the first finite.

   1848, Emanuel Swedenborg, The Philosophy of the Infinite; Outlines on a philosophical argument on the Infinite

   All its sweetness, its wild purity, its slow, sorrowful strength, and its sudden overtripping, overmastering joy , drifted out upon the sunshine of the meadow, the varied phrases coming turn and turn about with long intervening silences, as though the singer ruminated on all the beauty before her, and unconsciously sang her thoughts aloud.

   1912, Tickner Edwardes, Neighbourhood: A Year's Life in and about an English Village, page 135

   Meanwhile, the MoT had itself also been ruminating on options for the northern half of the route.

   2020 April 8, David Clough, “How the West Coast wiring war was won”, in Rail, page 59

3. transitiveTo meditate or ponder over; to muse on.

   Mad with desire, she ruminates her sin.

   1697, Virgil, “Cinyras and Myrrha”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

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   What I know / Is ruminated, plotted, and set down.

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

   "Good-by, my dear Belinda; I leave you to ruminate sweet and bitter thoughts; to think of the last speech and confession of Lady Delacour, or, what will interest you much more, the first speech and confession of—Clarence Harvey."

   1801, Maria Edgeworth, “Belinda”, in Tales and Novels, volume 6, New York: Harper & Brothers, published 1835, page 65

1. not comparablebiologyHaving a hard albumen penetrated by irregular channels filled with softer matter, as the nutmeg and the seeds of the North American papaw.

   a ruminate endosperm