ruminate

1533, "to turn over in the mind," also "to chew cud" (1547), from Latin rūminātus, perfect active participle of rūminārī (“to chew the cud, turn over in the mind”), from rūmen (“the throat, gullet”), of uncertain origin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹumɪneɪt/

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ruminate (third-person singular simple present ruminates, present participle ruminating, simple past and past participle ruminated)

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

   A camel will ruminate just as a cow will.

2. (intransitive) To meditate or reflect.

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

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

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

3. (transitive) To meditate or ponder over; to muse on.
   • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

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

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

     Mad with desire, she ruminates her sin.

• See also Thesaurus:ponder
• Or Thesaurus:think

• ruminator

• rumen
• ruminant
• rumination
• ruminatory

ruminate (not comparable)

1. (botany) Having 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

• chew the cud

• “ruminate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “ruminate”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “ruminate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

ruminate

1. inflection of ruminare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

ruminate f pl

1. feminine plural of ruminato

• minutare, numerati

rūmināte

1. vocative masculine singular of rūminātus