DictionaryAI

amuse

verb
USuh-MYOOZ/əˈmjuːz/

Formsamuses, amusing, amused

4 meanings of amuse

Practice

  1. 1
    verbtransitive
    To entertain or occupy someone pleasantly, often stirring enjoyable feelings.

    Magicians amuse their audiences with quick sleight of hand.

    Her witty stories amused everyone at the dinner table.

    Similarentertain, delight, divert, charm

    Oppositebore

    Note

    The everyday sense is often reflexive. William Gilpin's Observations (1786) shows children amusing themselves with pushing stones off a cliff. Two patterns carry most uses: people amuse themselves with an activity, or an experience amuses a person, as in it amuses me to hear. Unlike the "funny" meaning, it asks for no laughter; being pleasantly occupied is enough.

  2. 2
    verbtransitive
    To cause laughter in someone; to strike a person as funny.

    Silly puns amuse some people far more than others.

    The comedian's timing amused even the toughest critics.

    Similartickle, entertain

  3. 3
    verbarchaictransitive
    To keep someone in false expectation; to beguile or delude them with empty hopes.
    Note

    Here amusing someone means holding them off with hopes that will not be met, and any pleasure belongs to the deceiver. The use is archaic, so in current prose beguile or delude does the work safely. A modern reader will hear the entertaining sense and miss the deception entirely.

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    verbarchaictransitive
    To engage or absorb someone's attention completely; also, to distract or bewilder them.

    Sudden alarms amuse soldiers and scatter their focus at the worst moment.

    the enemies were amused on the fires that our men made
    1659, Livy, The Romane Historie
    Note

    The oldest layer of the word stays closest to Old French amuser, "to stupefy, be lost in thought," built on muser, "to stare, gape, loiter." Thomas Fuller in 1655 describes a man amused with grief, fear, and fright who cannot find the house: he is absorbed and bewildered, not entertained. Holland's Livy gives the military turn, with enemies amused on the fires their foes had lit, their attention drawn away.

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Origin

Amuse comes from Late Middle English amusen ("to mutter, be astonished, gaze meditatively"), from Old French amuser ("to stupefy, waste time, be lost in thought"), built from a- plus muser ("to stare stupidly, gape, wander, or waste time"). The ultimate origin is uncertain and obscure: it may go back to a word for "snout" (compare Medieval Latin mūsum, German Maul), or possibly to Frankish *muoza ("careful attention, leisure, idleness").