Muscle definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (45)

American Heritage Dictionary (6)

noun A tissue composed of fibers capable of contracting to effect bodily movement.
noun A contractile organ consisting of a special bundle of muscle tissue, which moves a particular bone, part, or substance of the body: the heart muscle; the muscles of the arm.
noun Muscular strength: enough muscle to be a high jumper.

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Century Dictionary (31)

A kind of animal tissue consisting of bundles of fibers whose essential physiological characteristic is contractility, or the capability of contracting in length and dilating in breadth on the application of a proper stimulus, as the impulse of a motor nerve, or a shock of electricity; flesh; “lean meat.” By such change of form, the muscles become the immediate means of motion of the different parts of the body, and of locomotion of the body as a whole.
A certain portion of muscle or muscular tissue, having definite position and relation with surrounding parts, and usually fixed at one or both ends. Any one of the separate masses or bundles of muscular fibers constitutes a muscle, which as a whole and in its subdivisions is enveloped in fascial connective tissue and usually attached to the part to be moved by means of a tendon or sinew. Muscles are for the most part attached to bones, with the periosteum of which their tendons are directly continuous. The most extensive or most fixed attachment of a muscle is usually called its origin; the opposite end is its insertion. Individual muscles not only change their shape during contraction, but are of endlessly varied shapes when at rest, indicated by descriptive terms, as conical, fusiform, penniform, digastric, deltoid, etc., besides which each muscle has its specific name. Such names are given from the attachments of the muscle, as sternoclidomastoid, omohyoid; or from function, as flexor, extensor; or from position, as pectoral, gluteal; or from shape, as deltoid, trapezoid; or from some other quality or attribute, in an arbitrary manner. Circular muscles are those whose fibers return upon themselves; they constitute sphincters, as of the mouth, eyelids, and anus. The swelling part of a muscle is called its belly; when there are two such, separated by an intervening tendon, the muscle is double-bellied or digastric. Muscles whose fibers are set obliquely upon an axial tendon are penniform or bipenniform. Muscles whose fibers are all parallel are called simple or rectilinear; those whose fibers intersect or cross each other are called compound. Muscles which act in opposition to one another are termed antagonistic those which concur in the same action are termed congenerous.; Muscles subject to the will are voluntary; their fibers are striped, and they compose the great bulk of the muscular system. Involuntary muscles are not subject to the will; they are generally unstriped, though the heart is an exception to this. Hollow organs whose walls are notably muscular, as the heart, intestine, bladder, and womb, are called hollow muscles. Striped or voluntary muscle is sometimes called muscle of animal life, as distinguished from unstriped involuntary muscle of organic life.
A part, organ, or tissue, of whatever histological character, which has the property of contractility, and is thus capable of motion in itself.

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Examples (50)

The human brain is like what you call a muscle, and if it is not used, it falls off in strength. — 054 - Ost
He was not a young man, but the iron of his muscle was astonishing Monk Mayfair, entering the big room, saw no one in motion, only men motionless on the floor. — 123 - The Talking Devil
"And the more that we can do not to weaken ourselves but to strengthen our neighbors and to give them encouragement rather than to simply show them our muscle is an important part of rebuilding America's national prestige." — CNN Political Ticker
It's almost like we just stop flexing this muscle, which is our fantasy-imagination muscle, as we get older. — Drowned In Sound // Feed
With every stride, it felt as if the muscle was a spasming around the canula. — Discussion Forum - TuDiabetes - A Community for People Touched by Diabetes

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nerve · tissue · bone · limb · organ · strength · leg · brain · chest · pain · hair · finger

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mūsculus, diminutive of mūs, mouse; see mūs- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (1)

Early modern English also muskle; from French muscle = Provencal muscle, moscle = Spanish músculo = Portuguese musculo = Italian muscolo = D. G. Swedish Danish muskel, a muscle, from Latin musculus, a muscle, a little mouse, diminutive of mus, a mouse, = Greek μῦς, a mouse, also a muscle, = German maus, a mouse, a muscle; cf. French souris, a mouse, formerly the brawn of the arm, Cornish logoden fer, calf of the leg, literally mouse of leg: the more prominent muscles, as the biceps, having, when in motion, some resemblance to a mouse: see mouse. Hence muscle, mussel. The pron. Mus'l instead of mus'kl is prob. due to the ult. identical muscle, mussel, where, however, the pron. of c in -cle as ‘soft’ is irregular, though occurring also in corpuscle.

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