To chew the cud; to chew again what has been slightly chewed and swallowed. Oxen, sheep, deer, goats, camels, hares and squirrels ruminate in fact; other animals, as moles, bees, crickets, beetles, crabsonly appear to ruminate. The only animals endowed with the genuine faculty of rumination, are the Ruminantia, or cloven-hoofed quadrupeds, but the hare, although its stomach is differently organized, is an occasional and partial ruminant.

To muse; to meditate; to think again and again; to ponder. It is natural to ruminate on misfortunes. He practices a slow meditation, and ruminates on the subject.

To chew over again.

To muse on; to meditate over and over again. Mad with desire, she ruminates her sin.