muscle Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun one of the contractile organs of the body
musculus.
noun animal tissue consisting predominantly of contractile cells
muscular tissue.
noun a bully employed as a thug or bodyguard
muscleman.
- the drug lord had his muscleman to protect him
noun authority or power or force (especially when used in a coercive way)
- the senators used their muscle to get the party leader to resign
noun possessing muscular strength
brawn; heftiness; sinew; brawniness; muscularity.
verb make one's way by force
- He muscled his way into the office

F., fr. L. musculus a muscle, a little mouse, dim. of mus a mouse. See Mouse, and cf. sense 3 (below).

(Anat.) (a) An organ which, by its contraction, produces motion. See Illust. of Muscles of the Human Body, in Appendix. (b) The contractile tissue of which muscles are largely made up. ✍ 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.
AS. muscle, L. musculus a muscle, mussel. See above. (Zoöl.) See Mussel.