Definition of "ruminate"

ruminate

/ˈɹumɪneɪt/

verb
third-person singular simple present ruminates, present participle ruminating, simple past and past participle ruminated
1. (intransitive) To chew cud. (Said of ruminants.) Involves regurgitating partially digested food from the rumen.
2. (intransitive) To meditate or reflect.
  Quotations
  Meanwhile, the MoT had itself also been ruminating on options for the northern half of the route.
  2020 April 8, David Clough, “How the West Coast wiring war was won”, in Rail, page 59
3. (transitive) To meditate or ponder over; to muse on.
  Quotations
  What I know / Is ruminated, plotted, and set down.
  c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]
  Mad with desire, she ruminates her sin.
  1697, Virgil, “Cinyras and Myrrha”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
adjective
not comparable
1. (botany) Having a hard albumen penetrated by irregular channels filled with softer matter, as the nutmeg and the seeds of the North American papaw.