muster

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English [edit]

WOTD – 19 October 2008    
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Etymology [edit]

Middle English, from Anglo-Norman mostrer, to show etc. and Middle French monstrer, moustrer (whence the noun monstre, which gave the English noun), from Latin mōnstrāre (“to show”), from monere (“to admonish”).

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

muster (plural musters)

  1. Gathering.
    1. An assemblage or display; a gathering, collection of people or things. [from 14th c.]
      • 1743, Joseph Steele & Richard Addison, The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.:
        She seems to hear the Repetition of his Mens Names with Admiration; and waits only to answer him with as false a Muster of Lovers.
      • 1920, Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, Issue 13,
        The figures from 1788 to 1825 inclusive, as already mentioned, are based on the musters taken in those years; those for subsequent years are based upon estimates made on the basis of Census results and the annual […] .
    2. (chiefly military) An assembling or review of troops, as for parade, verification of numbers, inspection, exercise, or introduction into service. [from 15th c.]
      • 1598, William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part 1:
        Come, let vs take a muster speedily: / Doomesday is neere; dye all, dye merrily.
      • 1663, Samuel Pepys, Diary, 4 Jul 1663:
        And after long being there, I 'light, and walked to the place where the King, Duke &c., did stand to see the horse and foot march by and discharge their guns, to show a French Marquisse (for whom this muster was caused) the goodness of our firemen [...].
    3. (Australia, New Zealand) A roundup of livestock for inspection, branding, drenching, shearing etc. [from 19th c.]
      • 2006, John Gilfoyle, Bloody Jackaroos!, Boolarong Press:
        McGuire took the two of them out to Kidman's Bore on the Sylvester River where about two dozen stockmen from different stations had gathered to tend the muster along the edge of the Simpson Desert.
  2. Showing.
    1. (obsolete) Something shown for imitation; a pattern. [15th-19th c.]
    2. (obsolete) An act of showing something; a display. [15th-17th c.]
      • 1590, Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia, Book III:
        Thus all things being condignely ordered, will an ill favoured impatiencie he waited, until the next morning he might make a muster of him selfe in the Iland [...].
      • 1647, Beaumont & Fletcher, The Queen of Corinth, Act 2:
        And when you find your women's favour fail, / 'Tis ten to one you'll know yourself, and seek me, / Upon a better muster of your manners.
    3. A collection of peafowl (an invented term rather than one used by zoologists). [from 15th c.]

Derived terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

any assemblage or display
assembling or review of troops
roundup of cattle
something shown for imitation
show; display
collection of peafowl

Verb [edit]

muster (third-person singular simple present musters, present participle mustering, simple past and past participle mustered)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To show, exhibit. [15th-17th c.]
  2. (intransitive) To be gathered together for parade, inspection, exercise, or the like (especially of a military force); to come together as parts of a force or body. [from 15th c.]
  3. (transitive) To collect, call or assemble together, such as troops or a group for inspection, orders, display etc. [from 15th c.]
    • 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift
      With the help of some low-end boosting, Dinklage musters a decent amount of kid-appropriate menace—although he never does explain his gift for finding chunks of ice shaped like pirate ships—but Romano and Leary mainly sound bored, droning through their lines as if they’re simultaneously texting the contractors building the additions on their houses funded by their fat sequel paychecks.
  4. (transitive, US) To enroll (into service). [from 19th c.]

Synonyms [edit]

  • (gather, unite, especially troops): rally

Derived terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

to call or assemble a group together
to summon together
to enroll in service
to be gathered together
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

References [edit]

Anagrams [edit]

German [edit]

Verb [edit]

muster

  1. First-person singular present of mustern.
  2. Imperative singular of mustern.
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