MUSCLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Muscle

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/mˈəsəl/ Listen

noun

Muscle n.

(Anat.)

(a)

An organ which, by its contraction, produces motion.

(b)

The contractile tissue of which muscles are largely made up. Note: Muscles are of two kinds, striated and nonstriated. The striated muscles, which, in most of the higher animals, constitute the principal part of the flesh, exclusive of the fat, are mostly under the control of the will, or voluntary, and are made up of great numbers of elongated fibres bound together into bundles and inclosed in a sheath of connective tissue, the perimysium. Each fiber is inclosed in a delicate membrane (the sarcolemma), is made up of alternate segments of lighter and darker material which give it a transversely striated appearance, and contains, scattered through its substance, protoplasmic nuclei, the so-called muscle corpuscles. The nonstriated muscles are involuntary. They constitute a large part of the walls of the alimentary canal, blood vessels, uterus, and bladder, and are found also in the iris, skin, etc. They are made up of greatly elongated cells, usually grouped in bundles or sheets.

Muscular strength or development; as, to show one's muscle by lifting a heavy weight. (Colloq.)

(Zool.) See Mussel.

An essential part of something; as, budget cuts have gone beyond the fat and are cutting into the muscle of the government.

Bodyguards or other persons hired to provide protection or commit violence; as, he doesn't go out without his muscle along. (slang)

Muscle curve (Physiol.), contraction curve of a muscle; a myogram; the curve inscribed, upon a prepared surface, by means of a myograph when acted upon by a contracting muscle. The character of the curve represents the extent of the contraction.

verb

muscle v. t.

To compel by threat of force; as, they muscled the shopkeeper into paying protection money.

To moved by human force; as, to muscle the piano onto the truck.

See images of 'Muscle'

Etymology of 'Muscle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Muscle" Quotes from Famous Books

... leaned with his back to the fire. "We can, and shall," he said, and not a muscle ...

— A Son of Hagar - A Romance of Our Time • Sir Hall Caine

... to find her here and to know that the Atlantic Ocean will have to get more muscle to move her," said Candage. "And then again, it ain't so darnation comforting. Looks to me as if she's stuck there so solid that you couldn't joggle her off if you hove the moon at her. I reckon my hope has been what ...

— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day

... experiences come to us: these are the senses—a great number, not simply the five special senses of which we were taught in our childhood. Besides Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, and Touch, we now know of certain others very definitely. There are Muscle sensations coming from the moving of our limbs, Organic sensations from the inner vital organs, Heat and Cold sensations which are no doubt distinct from each other, Pain sensations probably having their own physical apparatus, sensations from the Joints, sensations of Pressure, of ...

— The Story of the Mind • James Mark Baldwin

... heartless! Don't argue with me. I hate argument when my emotions feel as if they had dynamite in them. I could sit down on the floor of the Senate and scream until war was declared. I hate Senator North. He never moved a muscle of his face during that entire terrible recital. He hardly looked interested. He is a ...

— Senator North • Gertrude Atherton

... a marvellous strength and agility, turning towards the right-hand, he fetched another striking gambol as before; which done, he set his right hand thumb upon the bow of the saddle, raised himself up, and sprung into the air, poising and upholding his whole weight upon the muscle and nerve of the said thumb, and so turned and whirled himself about three times: at the fourth, reversing his body, and overturning it upside down, and foreside back, without touching any thing, he brought himself betwixt the horse's two ears, and then giving himself a jerking swing, he seated ...

— The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman • Laurence Sterne

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