☞ Formerly, a large part of the Diptera were included under the genus Musca. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Astron.) A small constellation situated between the Southern Cross and the Pole. [ 1913 Webster ]

Muscae volitantes [ L., flying flies. ] (Med.) Specks or filaments apparently seen moving or gliding about in the field of vision. Their appearance is often a symptom of disease of the eye, or of disorder of the nervous system. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quaffed off the muscadel. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A dry white wine from the Loire Valley in France. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. (Bot.) A fragrant and delicious pear. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) See Muscardin. [ 1913 Webster ]

Northern muscadine (Bot.), a derivative of the northern fox grape, and scarcely an improvement upon it. --
Royal muscadine (Bot.), a European grape of great value. Its berries are large, round, and of a pale amber color. Called also golden chasselas. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. pl. Finest raisins, dried on the vine; “sun raisins.” [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Variously written moscatel, muscadel, etc. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Muscular strength or development; as, to show one's muscle by lifting a heavy weight. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. [ AS. muscle, L. musculus a muscle, mussel. See above. ] (Zool.) See Mussel. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An essential part of something; as, budget cuts have gone beyond the fat and are cutting into the muscle of the government. [ PJC ]

5. Bodyguards or other persons hired to provide protection or commit violence; as, he doesn't go out without his muscle along. [ slang ] [ PJC ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To moved by human force; as, to muscle the piano onto the truck. [ PJC ]

A good piece, the painters say, must have good muscling, as well as coloring and drapery. Shaftesbury. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An inhabitant of Moscow. [ PJC ]

3. (Min.) Common potash mica, essentially KAl3Si3O10(OH)2. It is used as an electrical insulator. See Mica. [ 1913 Webster ]

Great muscular strength, accompanied by much awkwardness. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Performed by, or dependent on, a muscle or the muscles. “The muscular motion.” Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Well furnished with muscles; having well-developed muscles; brawny; hence, strong; powerful; vigorous; as, a muscular body or arm. [ 1913 Webster ]

Muscular Christian, one who believes in a part of religious duty to maintain a healthful and vigorous physical state. T. Hughes. --
Muscular Christianity. (a) The practice and opinion of those Christians who believe that it is a part of religious duty to maintain a vigorous condition of the body, and who therefore approve of athletic sports and exercises as conductive to good health, good morals, and right feelings in religious matters. T. Hughes. (b) An active, robust, and cheerful Christian life, as opposed to a meditative and gloomy one. C. Kingsley. --
Muscular excitability (Physiol.), that property in virtue of which a muscle shortens, when it is stimulated; irritability; contractility. --
Muscular sense (Physiol.), muscular sensibility; the sense by which we obtain knowledge of the condition of our muscles and to what extent they are contracted, also of the position of the various parts of our bodies and the resistance offering by external objects. [ 1913 Webster ]