museums

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of museum.

   Several museums extended their hours for the summer festival.

   Many of the country's oldest museums began as private collections.

   Note

   A regular plural, made with the ordinary English -s. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so position decides the reading. After a determiner or number, or before a plural verb (several museums extend, the oldest museums began), it is the noun. Straight after a singular subject (my aunt museums), it is the verb. The noun is the reading a reader expects; the colloquial verb is the one that surprises.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of museum.

   Note

   A verb made straight from the noun, and colloquial in its commonest use. To museum is to go around museums, and in that use it takes no object: she museums every Saturday. The rarer meaning, putting something in a museum, can take an object (the city museums its retired trams) or stand without one. Keep it for playful or informal prose. In formal writing, visits museums is the safer choice.

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