muster

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Definitions (36)

Toggle American Heritage Dictionary definitions American Heritage Dictionary (12)

  1. transitive verb To call (troops) together, as for inspection.
  2. transitive verb To cause to come together; gather: Bring all the volunteers you can muster.
  3. transitive verb To call forth; summon up: mustering up her strength for the ordeal. See Synonyms at call.
  4. intransitive verb To assemble or gather: mustering for inspection.
  5. noun A gathering, especially of troops, for service, inspection, review, or roll call.
  6. noun The persons assembled for such a gathering.
  7. noun A muster roll.
  8. noun A gathering or collection: a muster of business leaders at a luncheon.
  9. noun A flock of peacocks. See Synonyms at flock1.
  10. phrasal verb muster in To enlist or be enlisted in military service: She mustered in at the age of 18.
  11. phrasal verb muster out To discharge or be discharged from military service: He was mustered out when the war ended.
  12. idiom pass muster To be judged as acceptable.

Toggle Century Dictionary definitions Century Dictionary (17)

  1. 1. To show; point; exhibit. He mustered his miracles amonge many men, And to the pepull he preched. York Plays, p. 481. So dide Galashin that often was he shewed, and mustred with the fynger on bothe sides. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii 407.
  2. To bring together into a group or body for inspection, especially with a view to employing in or discharging from military service; in general, to collect, assemble, or array. Compare muster, n., 3. Thei moustred and assembled all the peple that thei myght gete. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii. 560. Gentlemen, will you go muster men? Shak., Rich. II., ii. 2. 108. Wherewith Indignation and Griefe mustering greater multitudes of fearefull, vnquiet, enraged thoughts in his heart. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 359. All the gay feathers he could muster. Sir R. L'Estrange.
  3. To muster in, to muster into service to bring before the enrolling officers and register the names of; receive as recruits.
  4. To muster out, to muster out of service to bring together, as soldiers, that they may be discharged; discharge from military service.
  5. To muster the watch to call the roll of the men in a watch.
  6. To muster up to gather; collect; summon up: now generally in a figurative sense: as, to muster up courage. To muster up our Rhimes, without our Reason, And forage for an Audience out of Season. Congreve, Pyrrhus, Prol. One of those who can muster up sufficient sprightliness to engage in a game of forfeits. Hazlitt.
  7. Synonyms To call together, get together, gather, convene, congregate.
  8. To show; appear. Vndir an olde pore abyte [habit] regneth ofte Grete vurtew, thogh it mostre poorely. Book of Precedence (E. E. T. S., extra ser.), i. 105.
  9. To assemble; meet in one place, as soldiers; in general, to collect. And so they went and mostred before the Castil of Arde, the whiche was well furnysshed with Englysshemen. Berners, tr. of Froissart's Chron., I. ccliv. Why does my blood thus muster to my heart? Shak., M. for M., ii. 4. 20. Trump nor pibroch summon here Mustering clan, or squadron tramping. Scott, L. of the L., i. 31. What marvels manifold Seemed silently to muster! Lowell, Gold Egg.
  10. A show; a review; an exhibition; in modern use, an exhibition in array; array. He desyred his grace to take the muster of hym, and to see him shoote. Hall, quoted in Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p. 130. The most untowardly among them [boys in Devon and Cornwall] will not as readily give you a muster (or trial) of this exercise as you are prone to require it. Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 146. There was a splendid lunch laid out in the parlor, with all the old silver in muster, and with all the delicacies that Boston confectioners and caterers could furnish. H. B. Stowe, Oldtown, p. 567.
  11. A pattern; a sample. Forasmuch as it is reported that the Woollen clothes died in Turkie bee most excellently died, you shall send home into this realme certaine Mowsters or pieces of Shew. Hakluyt's Voyages, II. 162. These man-milliners generally require what they call a muster, or pattern, which they … reproduce exactly. Tomes, American in Japan (1857), p. 183.
  12. A gathering of persons, as of troops for review or inspection, or in demonstration of strength; an assembling in force or in array; an array; an assemblage. The mene peple that hadde no myster of bateile, the kynge made hem to a-bide by an hill, and made a mustre of armed peple. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii. 658. Of the temporal grandees of the realm and of their wives and daughters the muster was great and splendid. Macaulay. A gathering of happiness, a concentration and combination of pleasant details, a throng of glad faces, a muster of elated hearts. Charlotte Brontë, Shirley, xv.
  13. A register or roll of troops mustered; also, the troops enrolled. Ye publish the musters of your own bands. Hooker, Eccles. Polity. That Mustapha was forced to remoue, missing fortie thousand of his first musters. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 286.
  14. In hunting, a company or flock of peacocks. Strutt. According to the most ancient and approved treatise on hunting, I must say a muster of peacocks. W. Irving, Christmas Day.
  15. Tarpaulin muster a joint contribution by a number of persons: a whalers' expression.
  16. To pass muster to pass inspection; pass without censure, as one among a number on inspection; be allowed to pass. Double-dealers may pass muster for a while; but all parties wash their hands of them in the conclusion. Sir R. L'Estrange.
  17. Bang-tall muster. See bang-tail.

Toggle GNU Webster's 1913 definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

  1. Something shown for imitation; a pattern.
  2. To collect and display; to assemble, as troops for parade, inspection, exercise, or the like.
  3. To be gathered together for parade, inspection, exercise, or the like; to come together as parts of a force or body; as, his supporters mustered in force.

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

  1. compulsory military service
  2. a gathering of military personnel for duty
  3. call to duty, military service, jury duty, etc.
  4. gather or bring together

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