Rumination definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (8)

American Heritage Dictionary (2)

noun The act of pondering; meditation.
noun The act or process of chewing cud.

Century Dictionary (2)

The act or process of ruminating, or chewing the cud. The food of ruminants is entirely herbaceous, and consists chiefly of grass. This is rapidly cropped by grazing, and hastily swallowed, mixed with saliva. When its appetite is satisfied, the ruminant stands still, or oftener lies down, generally on its side. Then occurs a spasmodic action of the abdominal muscles and of the diaphragm, like a hiccup, which forces a bolus of grass, sodden in the fluids of the paunch, up the gullet and into the mouth, to be masticated or chewed at leisure. During this second chewing the cud is mixed with more saliva, thoroughly ground to pulp, and in this semi-fluid state it is finally swallowed. The cropped grass, when first swallowed, passes indifferently into either the rumen or the reticulum (which are in fact only two compartments of the cardiac division of the stomach, the gullet entering the stomach just at their junction), and in the ordinary peristaltic action of the stomach the fodder passes back and forth from one to the other. But there is an arrangement of muscular folds by means of which a canal may be formed that leads directly from the gullet past the rumen and reticulum into the psalterium, and by this channel the food, when returned after the rumination, may be conducted directly to the third stomach. Water drunk passes easily into any of the four stomachs according to circumstances. Neither the paunch nor the honeycomb is ever completely emptied of food; they have been found partly filled with sodden fodder in animals which have starved to death. It does not appear, as has been supposed, that the reticulum is specially concerned in modeling the boluses which are to be regurgitated. The regurgitation is effected by the reversed peristaltic action of the gullet. During the spasmodic action by which the sodden mass is driven against the opening of the gullet, and some of it forced into the gullet to be thrown up, it is prevented from passing into the psalterium partly by the narrowness of the opening between the reticulum and the psalterium, and partly by the resistance offered to the coarse mass by the close-pressed psalterial leaves or layers, which act like a fine grating. But when the mass is swallowed again in its now pulpifled and semifluid state, and is directed to the psalterium by the conformation of the parts, it readily soaks in through the psalterial layers, and thus reaches the abomasum or fourth stomach, where it is finally chymified by the action of the gastric juice, to which it is not before subjected. Rumination in man, when it is pathological, is also called merycism.
The act of ruminating or meditating; a musing or continued thinking on a subject; meditation or reflection. It is a melancholy of mine own, … extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness. Shak., As you Like it, iv. 1. 19.

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Co-rumination: Excessive chattering about problems, real and imagined. — Kruse Kronicle
Clarifying co-rumination: Associations with internalizing symptoms and romantic involvement among adolescent girls References and further reading may be available for this article. — Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now
Of whether his rumination was about the affairs of the newsroom or the next colourful joke, no one knew.
Updated to add: all this rumination is for naught ... a few hours into my first day an exquisite bouquet of lavender was delivered at the front desk. — say la vee
The world needs more rumination, and it's what blogs are about. — Abstract Gourmet

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rumination

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