muscular
/ˈmʌskjʊlə
/adjective
1Relating to or affecting the muscles: energy is needed for muscular activity...
- Hearty laughter increases heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate, and muscular activity.
- Neuromuscular signs, mainly referring to muscular tension, were also documented.
- Most cases will be forms of muscular tension headaches.
Synonyms
fibrous, sinewy
1.1Having well-developed muscles: his legs were strong and muscular...
- Polar bears have a heavy stout body with strong muscular legs and well-developed neck muscles.
- He has a sturdy build with strikingly muscular hands and chiseled features.
- He's well-built, lean and muscular, but in my dream he's wearing a tutu and tights.
Synonyms
strong, brawny, muscly, sinewy, well built, powerfully built, well muscled, burly, strapping, sturdy, rugged, powerful, broad-shouldered, athletic, well knit, muscle-bound, Herculean, manly
informal hunky, beefy, husky, ripped, shredded
North American informal buff
US informal jacked
dated stalwart
literary thewy
Physiology mesomorphic
1.2Vigorously robust: a muscular economy...
- The grid has been more or less a constant throughout her career, but lately it has become more robust and muscular.
- Solos tend to be modal rather than on conventional chords and the result is a muscular and dynamic trip into the adventurous hinterland of free jazz.
- It is more an exceptional case of a sports film with an intellect that is just as muscular as the flesh around its robust frame.
Synonyms
vigorous, robust, strong, powerful, dynamic, potent, energetic, active, aggressive
Derivatives
muscularity
/ noun ...- Soon after researchers found that creatine helped athletes increase muscularity and strength, thousands of individuals began taking it with juice.
- The advantages of the stumpy standup rods and harness is that playing of a heavyweight fish becomes a real contest of endurance and technique, rather than muscularity and brute strength.
- As a competitor, my job is to build the most muscular body possible, and that means I need both overall muscle mass and individual muscularity.
muscularly
- Dave and I forged on up and down the slopes, stopping to admire the olive-green frogs that leaped muscularly away from our descending boots to freeze like tiny carvings beneath tussocks of wet grass.
- ‘That's an interesting question, but I'd say it combines reflexes for fast-twitch muscles and slow-twitch muscles, cardiovascularly and muscularly,’ he says.
- Looking notably better muscularly, her lower finish reinforces the fact that this class was extremely competitive and of high quality.
Origin
Late 17th century: alteration of earlier musculous, in the same sense.