v. [f. BE- 2 + MUSE v.: cf. amuse.] trans. To make utterly confused or muddled, as with intoxicating liquor; to put into a stupid stare, to stupefy. Hence Bemused, Bemusing ppl. a.
1735. Pope, Prol. Sat., 15. A parson much be-mus’d in beer.
1771. J. Foot, Penseroso, IV. 196. [With] fairy tales bemused the shepherd lies.
1847. H. Miller, First Impr., xix. (1861), 265. The bad metaphysics with which they bemuse themselves.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, xxx. III. 2. A Prussian was regarded in England as a dull beer-bemused creature.
¶ humorously, To devote entirely to the Muses.
1705. Pope, Let. H. Cromwell, Wks. 1735, I. 15. When those incorrigible things, Poets, are once irrecoverably Be-mus’d.
