muster

noun

1. 1

   A gathering. An assemblage or display; a gathering, collection of people or things.

   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.

   Of the temporal grandees of the realm, and of their wives and daughters, the muster was great and splendid.

   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. 2

   A gathering. An assembling or review of troops, as for parade, verification of numbers, inspection, exercise, or introduction into service.

   Come, let vs take a muster speedily: / Doomesday is neere; dye all, dye merrily.

   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 […]

   2010, Ohtar, "Enthroned", Slechtvalk, A Forlorn Throne. To shorten his way and to hasten for the muster he takes a long lost road.

3. 3

   A gathering. The sum total of an army when assembled for review and inspection; the whole number of effective men in an army.

   Ye publish the musters of your own bands, and proclaim them to amount of thousands.

4. 4

   A gathering. A roundup of livestock for inspection, branding, drenching, shearing etc.

   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.

5. 5

   obsoleteShowing. Something shown for imitation; a pattern.

   And this is the more ſurprizing, as he [the Indian tailor] never meaſures you; he only aſks "maſter for muſter," as he terms it, that is, for a pattern

6. 6

   obsoleteShowing. A sample of goods.

   The beasts they saw here were hogs and little dogs, and they found some hens; here also they found a muster of cloves, ginger, and cinnamon; though the cinnamon was not of the best: […]

   A letter from Mr. Downie, dated 14th of January 1807, acknowledging the receipt of one from the plaintiff, transmitting musters of silk, and authorizing the plaintiff, on certain conditions, to proceed in his speculation […]

7. 7

   obsoleteShowing. An act of showing something; a display.

   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 […]

   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.

8. 8

   Showing. A group of peafowl, storks or sometimes other birds.

   The muster of peafowl, known to occasionally wander off, made it unusually far this time.

   Having seen a post by Linda on the Leelanau County Lost & Found Pets Page about the missing peacocks, the neighbor surmised it was from the Smith muster, grabbed the peahen by the tail and returned it to its home.

   Again, on August 26th there was an exceptionally large muster of gulls, terns and waders at the Teesmouth

   an early memorable scene in Disney's classic film Dumbo shows a muster of storks flying over Florida , each with a satchel in its mouth.

verb

1. 1

   obsoleteTo show, exhibit.

2. 2

   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.

   We were then in the third week of November; but, we took our measures so vigorously, and were so well seconded by the friends in whom we confided, that there was still a week of the month unexpired, when our party all came down together merrily, and mustered in the haunted house.

   The whole male population, men and boys, mustered on the top of the hill.

3. 3

   To collect, call or assemble together, such as troops or a group for inspection, orders, display etc.

   England took 57 minutes to muster a shot on target and once again lived dangerously in defence, surviving anxious moments when Ghana hit them on the counter-attack as the contest became a disjointed affair.

4. 4

   To enroll (into service).

5. 5

   To gather or round up livestock.

6. 6

   To look within oneself to summon (a particular positive quality, such as strength, energy or courage); see: muster up.

   I couldn't muster the courage to tell him.

   That which Walter Raleigh had not courage to tell, not one of these men could muster the courage to ask.

   She musters a smile for his nostalgic tale

noun

1. 1

   Synonym of mustee.

   The next, the Quadroon, from the white and mulatto woman. The third descent, from a white and quadroon, is called a muster; from the fourth, between a white and a muster, springs the musteephinas and the fifth descent, viz. from a white and musteephina, is white by law, and of free birth; indeed the two latter classes are as white as a European.

   Mixed bloods, they are suspended between two races, — mulattoes, quadroons, musters, mustafinas, cabres, griffies, zambis, quatravis, tresalvis, coyotes, saltatras, albarassados, cambusos, — neither white nor black, but Negroes.

Forms

plural

musters

past tense

mustered

past participle

mustered

present participle

mustering

third person singular

musters