muscular, a.
(ˈmʌskjʊlə(r))
[ad. mod.L. *musculār-is, f. mūscul-us muscle n. Cf. F. musculaire.]
1. a. Of or belonging to muscle or the muscles.
muscular feeling, muscular sensation (see quot. 1829). muscular sense: the faculty of muscular sensation; by some modern psychologists recognized as an independent ‘sense’, but popularly regarded as a particular application of the sense of ‘touch’. muscular sound: the sound produced by the contraction of a muscle; so muscular murmur, etc.
| 1685 Willis' Lond. Pract. Physic Pref., His Tract..Of Muscular Motion. 1701 Grew Cosm. Sacra i. iv. §14. 19 Upon these [parallel fibres] the far greater stress of the Muscular Action doth depend. 1809 Med. Jrnl. XXI. 457 Some modern theories upon the cause of muscular contraction. 1829 Jas. Mill Hum. Mind I. vii. 31 Muscular sensations, or those feelings which accompany the action of the muscles. Ibid. 33 In most cases of the muscular feelings, there is..great complexity. 1837 Rep. Brit. Assoc. V. 268 Muscular sound, or the resonance attending sudden muscular contraction [of the heart]. 1838–9 F. A. Kemble Resid. Georgia (1863) 13 Diseases of the muscular and nervous systems. 1840 Swainson Malacology 399 Muscular Impressions: those indented marks in acephalous bivalves, indicating the insertion of those muscles by which the animal is attached to its shell. 1864 Reader No. 88. 304/3 Experiments on the muscular susurrus. 1875 Lewes Probl. Life & Mind II. vi. iv. 481 If I contract my muscles, a peculiar feeling is produced in me by the muscular sense. 1880 Haughton Phys. Geog. vi. 270 note, The Scaly Ant-eaters are closely related to the South American Ant-eaters, even in minute details of muscular structure. 1881 tr. Rosenthal's Muscles & Nerves iii. 43 This muscular note clearly shows that vibrations must occur within the muscle. 1892 Greener Breech Loader 202 The muscular sense may be trained: it enables sportsmen to judge accurately of distances, as letter-sorters and others judge of weights to a nicety. |
b. Of diseases, etc.: Affecting the muscles.
muscular dystrophy, any of a group of hereditary disorders (or these disorders collectively) marked by the progressive wasting and weakening of some muscles owing (apparently) to some defect of the muscles themselves.
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Consumption, An universal, or muscular consumption. 1807 Med. Jrnl. XVII. 269 Diseases..of a muscular nature. 1886 Muscular dystrophy [see dystrophy s.v. dys-]. 1896 Daily News 1 Feb. 3/1 The very general prevalence of muscular rheumatism. 1932 W. Boyd Text-bk. Path. xxx. 840 The muscular dystrophies have several clinical divisions, but the basic pathology is the same... The large muscles concerned with fixation (shoulder, girdle, hip) are chiefly affected, the small muscles concerned with active movement (hand, etc.) usually escaping. This is the opposite to what occurs in progressive muscular atrophy. 1939 Dible & Davie Pathology lviii. 896 (heading) The myopathies or muscular dystrophies. 1961 R. D. Baker Essent. Path. xi. 275 In muscular dystrophy the atrophy is due to changes in the muscle fibers themselves... In muscular atrophy the primary change is in the nerves which supply the muscles or in the cord or brain. 1961 Lancet 9 Sept. 601/1 We have recently come across a family where five members suffered from muscular dystrophy, inherited apparently as an autosomal or X-linked dominant. 1973 Nature 1 June 287/1 The traditional concept that muscular dystrophy is a ‘primary degenerative myopathy’ has recently been challenged, and the suggestion put forward that the disease may..have a neural basis. |
2. Composed of or of the nature of muscle; also, forming a constituent of muscle.
muscular stomach (of a bird): one with muscular walls, as distinguished from a ‘glandular’ stomach.
muscular tumour: see
myoma.
| 1681 Grew Compar. Anat. i. 3 The Muscular Fibers [of the gullet of a cat]..plainly Platted. Ibid. ii. 7 The Fibers of the Muscular Membrane. Ibid. iii. 14 Separated by a Muscular Ligament. Ibid. viii. 32 He [the Cassowary] hath no Gizard (as hath the Ostrich); yet a thick Muscular Stomach. 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1711) Pref., The Muscular and Nervous Parts acquire..great Strength..by Exercises. 1851 Woodward Mollusca 6 The mollusca are animals with soft bodies, enveloped in a muscular skin. 1876 J. S. Bristowe Th. & Pract. Med. (1878) 494 The muscular walls of the heart are liable to many changes. 1888 A. Flint Hum. Phys. (ed. 4) 470 A fluid, called the muscular juice. |
3. a. Of an animal body, a limb, etc.: Characterized by muscle, having well-developed muscles.
| 1736 Thomson Liberty iv. 146 The spreading Shoulders, muscular, and broad. 1838 James Robber i, They were..muscular and finely proportioned. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede xix, Look at this broad-shouldered man with the bare muscular arms. |
| Comb. 1784 Cowper Task v. 15 The muscular proportion'd limb Transformed to a lean shank. |
b. muscular Christianity: A term applied (from about 1857) to the ideal of religious character exhibited in the writings of Charles Kingsley. (See
quot. 1858.) Also
muscular Christian; so
muscular-Christian adj.| 1857 Sat. Rev. 21 Feb. 176/1 We all know by this time what is the task that Mr. Kingsley has made specially his own—it is that of spreading the knowledge and fostering the love of a muscular Christianity. 1858 Edin. Rev. Jan. CVII. 190 It is a school of which Mr. Kingsley is the ablest doctor; and its doctrine has been described fairly and cleverly as ‘muscular Christianity’. The principal characteristics of the writer whose works earned this burlesque though expressive description, are his deep sense of the sacredness of all the ordinary relations and the common duties of life, and the vigour with which he contends..for the great importance and value of animal spirits, physcial strength, and a hearty enjoyment of all the pursuits and accomplishments which are connected with them. 1858 Tait's Edin. Mag. XXV. 101/1 Here our muscular Christian insinuates that [etc.]. 1858 Kingsley Let. 19 Oct. in Lett. & Mem. Life (1883) 213 [To a clergyman who, in a review, had called him ‘a muscular Christian’.] You have used that, to me, painful, if not offensive, term, ‘Muscular Christianity’. 1865 ― David i. 5. 1880 Disraeli Endym. xiv, Nigel..was also a sportsman. His Christianity was muscular. 1966 Listener 27 Oct. 613/2 That muscular Christian, Welldon, who was his headmaster and housemaster at Harrow,..always appreciated his [sc. Churchill's] merits. 1970 T. Hilton Pre-Raphaelites v. 133 The tone of the place [sc. the Working Men's College] was heavily muscular-Christian. 1975 J. Blackburn Mister Brown's Bodies xviii. 151 Great hulking fellows... Muscular Christians to a man. |
4. Having regard to muscle or the use of muscle.
| 1828 Scott F. M. Perth ii, The air of personal health and muscular strength, which the whole frame indicated. 1848 Mill Pol. Econ. i. i. §1. 29 Labour is either bodily or mental; or, to express the distinction more comprehensively, either muscular or nervous. 1858 Greener Gunnery 323 It would vary according to muscular development, the weight and height of the sportsman. |
| fig. 1853 Lytton My Novel ix. xvi, No mind becomes muscular without rude and early exercise. 1862 Illustr. Lond. News 11 Jan. 51/1 A narrowness of chest which somebody has said is a defect fatal to muscular statesmanship. |
Hence
ˈmuscularly adv.| 1847–54 in Webster. 1881 Daily Tel. 8 Apr. 5/2 The only way..to settle which is the better of the pair is to fight it out muscularly once a year on the Thames. 1883 Harper's Mag. Jan. 201/1, I do not know any..motions more muscularly graceful than those of the chopper's. |