muscle

Meanings

1. 1
   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

2. 2
   noun

   a bully employed as a thug or bodyguard

   The drug lord had muscleman as protection.

3. 3
   verb

   make one's way by force

   Ignoring protests, they muscled their way into the office.

4. 4
   noun

   A contractile form of tissue which animals use to effect movement.

   Muscle consists largely of actin and myosin filaments.

5. 5
   noun

   An organ composed of muscle tissue.

   His brow and hair and the palms of his hands were wet, and there was a kind of nervous contraction of his muscles. They seemed to ripple and string tense.

6. 6
   noun

   A well-developed physique, in which the muscles are enlarged from exercise.

   2008, Lou Schuler, "Foreward", in Nate Green, Built for Show, page xii The fact that I was middle-aged, bald, married, and raising girls instead of chasing them didn't really bother me. Muscles are cool at any age.

7. 7
   noun

   Strength, force.

   The widely-backed campaign to recall Evan Mecham as governor of Arizona gained even more muscle when the state House of Representatives voted to impeach the ultraconservative on February 5.

8. 8
   noun

   Hired strongmen or bodyguards.

   It was easy enough to dodge him, let him crash into the floorboards. Peltroc knew that his priority was the leader, not the hired muscle.

Etymology

From Middle English muscle, muscule, muskylle, and in part from Middle French muscle, from Latin mūsculus (“a muscle”, literally “little mouse”) because of the mouselike appearance of some muscles, from mūs (“mouse”). Doublet of mussel. More at mouse.