MUSCLE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.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

... hand, the youth now pointed his Winchester toward the sky and discharged several barrels, in the hope that the reports would reach the ears of the Texans and bring a response from them. The mustang did not stir a muscle; he was so accustomed to that sort of thing that his nerves ...

— The Great Cattle Trail • Edward S. Ellis

... of whose path to life and freedom we had stepped glanced from the line of lowered steel to the open gates and the forest beyond, and understood. For a full minute he waited, moving not a muscle, still and stately as some noble masterpiece in bronze. Then he stepped from the shadow of the wall and moved past us through the sunshine that turned the eagle feather in his scalp lock to gold. His eyes were fixed ...

— To Have and To Hold • Mary Johnston

... voluptuous indulgence. Hindoo sculpture emphasizes the same trait: "Even in the conception of male figures," says Luebke (109), "there is a touch of this womanly softness;" there is "a lack of an energetic life, of a firm contexture of bone and muscle." It is not of such enervated stuff that true lovers ...

— Primitive Love and Love-Stories • Henry Theophilus Finck

... but Mr. Pitt always has at command the right word." This was the generous tribute of Pitt's most eminent rival, Charles James Fox. Never were great opponents in public life more exactly designed by Nature to be contrasts to one another. While every tone of Pitt's voice and every muscle of his countenance expressed with unmistakable distinctness the cold and stately composure of his character, every particle of Fox's mental and physical formation bore witness to his fiery and passionate enthusiasm. ...

— Collections and Recollections • George William Erskine Russell

... picture on it. "There, every part of that little fellow's body I've drawn has muscles, such fine muscles no naked eye could ever see them. I'll show them to you under the microscope in my cabin. Those muscles move the body, and each muscle is controlled by threads, still more ...

— Little Busybodies - The Life of Crickets, Ants, Bees, Beetles, and Other Busybodies • Jeanette Augustus Marks and Julia Moody

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