muster Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a gathering of military personnel for duty
    • he was thrown in the brig for missing muster
  2. noun compulsory military service
    selective service; draft; conscription.
  3. verb gather or bring together
    rally; come up; muster up; summon.
    • muster the courage to do something
    • she rallied her intellect
    • Summon all your courage
  4. verb call to duty, military service, jury duty, etc.

WordNet

Mus"ter noun
Etymology
OE. moustre, OF. mostre, moustre, F. montre, LL. monstra. See Muster, v. t.
Definitions
  1. Something shown for imitation; a pattern. Obs.
  2. A show; a display. Obs. Piers Plowman.
  3. An assembling or review of troops, as for parade, verification of numbers, inspection, exercise, or introduction into service.
    The hurried muster of the soldiers of liberty. Hawthorne.
    See how in warlike muster they appear, In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings. Milton.
  4. The sum total of an army when assembled for review and inspection; the whole number of effective men in an army.
    And the muster was thirty thousands of men. Wyclif.
    Ye publish the musters of your own bands, and proclaim them to amount of thousands. Hooker.
  5. Any assemblage or display; a gathering.
    Of the temporal grandees of the realm, mentof their wives and daughters, the muster was great and splendid. Macaulay.
    Such excuses will not pass muster with God. South.
Mus"ter transitive verb
Etymology
OE. mustren, prop., to show, OF. mostrer, mustrer, moustrer, monstrer, F. montrer, fr. L. monstrare to show. See Monster.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Mustered ; present participle & verbal noun Mustering
Definitions
  1. To collect and display; to assemble, as troops for parade, inspection, exercise, or the like. Spenser.
  2. Hence: To summon together; to enroll in service; to get together. "Mustering all its force." Cowper.
    All the gay feathers he could muster. L'Estrange.
    One of those who can muster up sufficient sprightliness to engage in a game of forfeits. Hazlitt.
Mus"ter intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To be gathered together for parade, inspection, exercise, or the like; to come together as parts of a force or body; as, his supporters mustered in force. "The mustering squadron." Byron.

Webster 1913