Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A tendon.
- n. Vigorous strength; muscular power.
- n. The source or mainstay of vitality and strength. Often used in the plural: "Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue” ( Izaak Walton).
- v. To strengthen with or as if with sinews.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A cord or tendon of the body. See tendon.
- n. A nerve. Compare aponeurosis.
- n. Hence Figuratively, muscle; nerve; nervous energy; strength.
- n. A string or chord, as of a musical instrument.
- n. That which gives strength or in which strength consists; a supporting member or factor; a mainstay.
- To furnish with sinews; strengthen as by sinews; make robust; harden; steel.
- To serve as sinews of; be the support or mainstay of.
- To knit or bind strongly; join firmly.
Wiktionary
- n. anatomy A cord or tendon of the body.
- n. obsolete A nerve.
- n. figuratively Muscle; nerve; nervous energy; vigor; vigorous strength; muscular power.
- n. A string or chord, as of a musical instrument.
- n. figuratively That which gives strength or in which strength consists; a supporting member or factor; mainstay; source of acquiring strength (often plural).
- v. To knit together, or make strong with, or as if with, sinews.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Anat.) A tendon or tendonous tissue. See Tendon.
- n. rare Muscle; nerve.
- n. Fig.: That which supplies strength or power.
- v. To knit together, or make strong with, or as with, sinews.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a cord or band of inelastic tissue connecting a muscle with its bony attachment
- n. possessing muscular strength
Etymologies
- From Middle English sinewe, synow, sinue, from Old English sinu, synu, senu, seono, seonu ("sinew, nerve, tendon"), from Proto-Germanic *sinwō, *senawō (“sinew”), from Proto-Indo-European *senew-, *snēw- (“tendon”), from Proto-Indo-European *sey- (“to bind, knit, tie together, tie to, connect”). Cognate with Scots senon, sinnon, sinnow ("sinew"), Saterland Frisian Siene ("sinew"), West Frisian senuw, sine ("nerve, sinew"), Dutch zenuw ("nerve, sinew"), German Sehne ("tendon, cord, sinew"), Swedish sena ("sinew"), Icelandic sin ("tendon"), Latin nervus ("sinew, nerve, tendon"), Ancient Greek νεῦρον (neũron, "tendon, cord, nerve"), Avestan (snāvar-, "tendon, sinew"), Sanskrit (snāvan-, snāván-, "tendon, muscle, sinew"), Tocharian B ṣñor. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English sinewe, from Old English sinewe, oblique form of seonu, sinu. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He preaches what he calls the sinew and bone of doctrine, and he is very stern in the pulpit.”
“Matching him sinew for sinew is Wes Studi as the bloodcurdlingly vengeful villain Magua, who vows to rip the heart out of an old adversary.”
“And strings them nested onto strands of sinew from a tule deer”
“Tough sinew is the result of hard muscular action.”
“The young day's strength is ours in sinew and thew and muscle,”
“By Great Britain and her Colonies continually sending a vast amount of their trade to our neighbours to the south, or to the rival nation of Germany in Europe, we are deflecting that much capital and muscle and sinew from the Empire to develop outside countries, and it must always be a material sacrifice to ourselves.”
“The word sinew, by the way, is exactly equal to our word nerve, and ayenward, as our author would say.”
“The sinew is carefully extracted; and where there are no persons skilled enough for that operation, they do not make use of the hind legs at all.”
“Probably a desperate hand-to-hand fight would have ensued, for Fergus McKay had much of the bone, muscle, and sinew, that is characteristic of his race, but a blow from an unseen weapon stunned him, and when his senses returned he found himself bound hand and foot lying in the bottom of a canoe.”
“I might slip, and get a sprain or break a sinew, or something, and I should like to know that there is a practitioner at hand to take care of my injury.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sinew’.
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 330 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
wrath, leaf, belly, prey, death, break, six, nod, dim, end, inn, judge and 1286 more...
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EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, Vespasian, languid, studied, judgment, dwindle, artifice, contribute, observe, sonorous, gladiator and 264 more...
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Writing Power
Words I am gathering from my reading
beetling, beetle, achromatic, tern, skink, treacly, venerable, skald, benthic, isle, capricious, sinew and 8 more...
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bepetersen's list
Words that I think should be banned from the English language
spittle, supper, crusty, moist, engorged, crotch, sinew, salve, suckle, mauve, damp, squat and 34 more...
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carolinacc's list
jettisoned, yearn, chrestomathy, catachresis, elation, gesundheit, ohne, tertium quid, iota, oscillation, argillous, flagrate and 67 more...
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trace
utum, diorite, Mandelbrot, uropygium, bravura, vulpine, vervain, burdock, souse, shantay, legume, sinew and 26 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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thing
apron, lard, clove, camphor, alfalfa, amber, caraway, juniper, kohl, lute, shale, glyph and 142 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sinew.
yarb "I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it."
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 36 Jul 24, 2008