ruminate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   chew the cuds

   cows ruminate

2. 2
   verb

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

   A camel will ruminate just as a cow will.

3. 3
   verb

   To meditate or reflect.

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

4. 4
   verb

   To meditate or ponder over; to muse on.

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

5. 5
   adj

   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

6. 6
   verb

   reflect deeply on a subject

Etymology

First attested in 1533; borrowed from Latin rūminātus, perfect active participle of rūminor (“to chew the cud, turn over in the mind”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from rūmen (“the throat, gullet”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), itself of uncertain origin.