also 6–8 amuze, 7 ammuze, -muse. [a. OFr. amuse-r to cause to muse, to put into a stupid stare, f. à to, here with causal force + muser to stare stupidly. The simple MUSE was in earlier use, and in sense 1, amuse is perhaps an Eng. derivative, with A- pref. 1 intensive, or even ad. It. amusare. The word was not in reg. use bef. 1600, and was not used by Shakespeare.]
† 1. intr. To muse intently, gaze in astonishment. Obs.
c. 1532. Chaucer’s H. of Fame (Thynne), v. 1287. I amused a long while Upon this wall of berile [early MSS. mused].
1611. Florio, Amusare, to ammuse or plod vpon.
1681. N. Lee, Jun. Brutus, I i. (T.), in Dram. Wks. (1733), 13. In some pathless Wilderness amusing.
† 2. trans. To cause to ‘muse’ or stare; to confound, distract, bewilder, puzzle. Obs.
1606. Chapman, M. D’Olive, Plays, 1873, I. 216. I am amused, or I am in a quandarie, gentlemen.
1611. Cotgr., Amuser, To amuse; to make to muse, or think of, wonder or gaze at: to put into a dumpe.
a. 1670. Hacket, Serm. Incarn., iv. A glorious splendor filled the mountain where Christ was transfigured and it did amuse Peter, James, and John.
1665. J. Spencer, Prodigies, 111. To amuze and scare us with one Prodigy or other perpetually.
1704. Swift, Mech. Oper. Spirit (1711), 284. To … stupify, fluster, and amuse the senses.
1741. Richardson, Pamela, III. 135. I would not amuse her too much.
† 3. To engage, arrest or occupy the attention of. (Const. upon, with, about, to.) Obs.
a. actively.
1603. Florio, Montaigne (1634), 302. That he should not ammuse his thoughts about matters above the clowds.
1672. Sir T. Browne, Let. Friend (1881), 135. Hairs which have most amused me have not been in the face or head, but on the back.
1712. Spect., No. 524, ¶ 1. It will … amuse the imagination of those who are more profound.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1823), V. i. 1 (T.). Reason would contrive such a religion as should afford both sad and solemn objects to amuse and affect the pensive part of the soul.
b. esp. refl. and pass.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XVIII. xxvii. Why art thou amused upon the course of the stars?
1641. Milton, Animadv. (1851), 186. The ingenuous Reader without further amusing himselfe in the labyrinth of controversall antiquity.
1689. Burnet, Tracts, I. 20. The Women are so much amuzed with the management at home.
1734. Watts, Reliq. Juv. (1789), 2. We are so amused and engrossed by the things of sense, that we forget our Maker.
4. To divert the attention of any one from the facts at issue; to beguile, delude, cheat, deceive. (The usual sense in 17–18th c.) arch.
1480. Caxton, Ovid’s Metam., XII. iii. I never amused my husbonde, ne can not doo it.
1569. Cecil, in Strype, Ann. Ref., I. liv. 582. He was secretly employed to amuse her, and render her the more secure.
1673. Marvell, Reh. Transp., II. 263. And all to amuse men from observing.
1693. Mem. Count Teckely, II. 132. Teckeley … made these offers only to amuse the Council at Vienna.
1728. De Foe, Magic, I. vii. 190. Tools of the Devil, to cheat and amuse the world.
1732. Berkeley, Min. Philos., II. 100. Alciphron, be not amused by Terms, lay aside the word Force.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., Wks. I. 155. Leave us in the dark, or, what is worse, amuse and mislead us by false lights.
1817. Cobbett, Year’s Resid. Amer. (1822), 230. It becomes the people of America to guard their minds against ever being, in any case, amused with names.
5. esp. in military tactics: To divert the attention of the enemy from one’s real designs. arch.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, I. IV. 179. He … thought it sufficient by charging, and amusing the enemies Van, to win time.
1722. De Foe, Mem. Cavaliers (1840), 232. This I did to give [the enemy] an alarm and amuse them.
1775. Montgomery, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), I. 494. To amuse the enemy, and blind them as to my real intention.
1796. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), II. 1796. It is natural to suppose their Fleet was to amuse ours whilst they cross from Leghorn.
6. a. ‘To draw on from time to time, to keep in expectation’ (J); to entertain with expectations not to be fulfilled; to divert, in order to gain or waste time. arch.
[1611. Cotgr., Amuser … to stay, hold, or delay from going forward by discourse, questions, or any other amusements.]
1639. Earl Northumb., in 3rd Rep. Hist. MSS. (1872), 79/1. They will no longer be amused with the King’s neutrality.
1777. Robertson, Amer., I. II. 72. He had been amused so log with vain expectations.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. vii. 241. The Rohillas had amused him with only deceitful promises.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp., V. xliii. 179. Silanus was directed to amuse and negotiate with both powers, and avoid an open rupture by all the arts of diplomacy.
† b. ? To keep up for a purpose, detain. Obs.
1615. Bacon, Lett., Wks. 1870, V. 173. To retrench and amuse the greatness of Spain for their own preservation.
1693. Evelyn, Compl. Gard., II. 25. They must be cut off Stump-wise, to amuse a little Sap in them during two or three Years.
7. a. To divert the attention of (one) from serious business by anything trifling, ludicrous or entertaining; passing into b. To divert, please with anything light or cheerful; c. esp. (in mod. sense) To excite the risible faculty or tickle the fancy of. Const. To amuse one with an anecdote, by telling him a story; to amuse oneself with a puzzle, with, by or in sketching; to be amused with a toy or whimsical person, by a story told me, at an incident, the self-complacency of another.
1663. J. Done, Hist. Septuagint, 96 (T.). Amusing themselues with no other things but pleasures and belly-cheere.
a. 1667. Cowley, Royal Soc., ii. That his own Business he might quite forget, They amus’d him with the Sports of wanton wit.
a. 1677. Barrow, Folly of Sland. (1846), 67. What do men commonly amuse [1716 please] themselves in so much, as in carping and harshly censuring, in defaming and abusing their neighbours?
1692. W. Walsh, Lett. & Poems, Pref. (J.). I cannot think it natural for a Man, who is much in Love, to amuse himself with such Trifles as the other.
1716–8. Lady Montague, Lett., I. xxxii. 110. I am careful … to amuse you by the account of all I see.
1756. J. Warton, Ess. Pope, ix. (1782), II. 68. Representations of … artless innocence always amuse and delight.
1810. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 4. To amuse though only to amuse our visitors is wisdom as well as good-nature.
1853. H. Rogers, Ech. Faith, 167. Twelve guests, who all had the misfortune to squint, amused their host with their ludicrous cross lights.
1876. M. Davies, Unorth. Lond., 312. The three schoolboys … amused themselves with shooting light missiles into the young ladies’ faces. Ibid., 313. Amusing themselves by trying the effect of stopping and unstopping their ears.
8. To cause (time) to pass pleasantly, to entertain agreeably; to ‘beguile,’ while away, enliven.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1784), III. 82. I was fain to amuse their concern, by saying that he had been ill the day before.
1791. Mrs. Inchbald, Simp. Story, I. vii. 66. Every new pursuit that might amuse the time.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., i. Who live by amusing the leisure of others.
