Amuse vs Bemuse - What's the difference?
amuse | bemuse |
To entertain or occupy in a pleasant manner; to stir with pleasing emotions.
* Gilpin
To cause laughter, to be funny.
(archaic) To keep in expectation; to beguile; to delude.
* Johnson
(archaic) To occupy or engage the attention of; to lose in deep thought; to absorb; also, to distract; to bewilder.
* Holland
* Fuller
To confuse or bewilder.
* 1735' A parson much '''be-mus'd in beer. — Alexander Pope, ''Satires of Dr. Donne versified
* 1771' [With] fairy tales '''bemused the shepherd lies. — James Foot, ''Penseroso
* 1847' The bad metaphysics with which they '''bemuse themselves. — Hugh Miller, ''First Impressions of England and its people
(archaic, humorous) To devote to the Muses.
* 1705' When those incorrigible things, Poets, are once irrecoverably '''Be-mus'd . — Alexander Pope, ''Letters
In transitive terms the difference between amuse and bemuse
is that amuse is to entertain or occupy in a pleasant manner; to stir with pleasing emotions while bemuse is to confuse or bewilder.amuse
English
Verb
- I watch these movies because they amuse me.
- It always amuses me to hear the funny stories why people haven't got a ticket, but I never let them get in without paying.
- A group of children amusing themselves with pushing stones from the top [of the cliff], and watching as they plunged into the lake.
- He amused his followers with idle promises.
- Camillus set upon the Gauls when they were amused in receiving their gold.
- Being amused with grief, fear, and fright, he could not find the house.