Definition of "amuse"

amuse

/əˈmjuːz/

verb
third-person singular simple present amuses, present participle amusing, simple past and past participle amused
1. (transitive) To entertain or occupy (someone or something) in a pleasant manner; to stir (an individual) with pleasing emotions.
  Quotations
  A group of children amusing themselves with pushing stones from the top [of the cliff], and watching as they plunged into the lake.
  1786, William Gilpin, Observations, relative chiefly to picturesque beauty, made in the year 1772, on several parts of England; particularly the mountains, and lakes of Cumberland, and Westmoreland
2. To cause laughter or amusement; to be funny.
3. (transitive, archaic) To keep in expectation; to beguile; to delude.
4. (transitive, archaic) To occupy or engage the attention of; to lose in deep thought; to absorb; also, to distract; to bewilder.
  Quotations
  Being amused with grief, fear, and fright, he could not find the house.The spelling has been modernized.
  1655, Thomas Fuller, edited by James Nichols, The Church History of Britain, […], new edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [James Nichols] for Thomas Tegg and Son, […], published 1837
  the enemies were amused on the fires that our men made
  1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “(please specify the book number)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […]
  Hairs which have most amused me have not been in the Face or Head, but on the Back, and not in Men but Children, as I long ago observed in that Endemial Distemper of little Children in Languedock, called the Morgellons, […]
  1690, Thomas Browne, A Letter to a Friend

Definition of "amuse"

amuse

verb

Quotations

Quotations