muscle

mus·cle   (mŭs'əl)    n.   A tissue composed of fibers capable of contracting to effect bodily movement. 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. Muscular strength: enough muscle to be a high jumper. Informal Power or authority: put some muscle into law enforcement. v.   mus·cled, mus·cling, mus·cles Informal v.   intr. To make one's way by or as if by force: muscled into the conversation. v.   tr. To move or force with strength: muscled legislation through Congress. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mūsculus, diminutive of mūs, mouse; see mūs- in Indo-European roots.] mus'cly adj.

Muscle

Mus"cle\, n. [F., fr. L. musculus a muscle, a little mouse, dim. of mus a mouse. See Mouse, and cf. sense 3 (below).]

1. (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.

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.

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

3. [AS. muscle, L. musculus a muscle, mussel. See above.] (Zo["o]l.) See Mussel.

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.

muscle 

Main Entry: mus·cle
Pronunciation: 'm&s-&l
Function: noun
often attributive 1 : a body tissue consisting of long cells thatcontract when stimulated and produce motion —see CARDIAC MUSCLE, SMOOTH MUSCLE, STRIATED MUSCLE
2 : an organ that is essentially a mass of muscle tissue attached at either end to a fixed point and that by contracting moves or checks the movement of a body part —see AGONIST 1 ANTAGONIST a SYNERGIST 2

muscle mus·cle (mŭs'əl)
n.

1. A tissue consisting predominantly of contractile cells and classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth, the last lacking transverse striations characteristic of the first two.
2. Any of the contractile organs of the body by which movements of the various organs and parts are effected, and whose fibers are usually attached at each extremity to a bone or other structure by a tendon.

muscle   (mŭs'əl)  Pronunciation Key  A body tissue composed of sheets or bundles of cells that contract to produce movement or increase tension. Muscle cells contain filaments made of the proteins actin and myosin, which lie parallel to each other. When a muscle is signaled to contract, the actin and myosin filaments slide past each other in an overlapping pattern. ◇ Skeletal muscle effects voluntary movement and is made up of bundles of elongated cells (muscle fibers), each of which contains many nuclei. ◇ Smooth muscle provides the contractile force for the internal organs and is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. Smooth muscle cells are spindle-shaped and each contains a single nucleus. ◇ Cardiac muscle makes up the muscle of the heart and consists of a meshwork of striated cells. muscular adjective

muscle

In addition to the idiom beginning with muscle, also see flex one's muscles; move a muscle.