muscled

1. 1
   adjective

   Having large and well-developed muscles, often as a result of exercise or hard physical work.

   The sculptor carved a broad-shouldered, heavily muscled figure.

   Competitive sprinters tend to have powerfully muscled thighs.

   Similarmuscular, brawny, sinewy, toned, burly

   Oppositescrawny, puny, flabby

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of muscle.

   The larger company muscled its smaller rivals out of the market.

   He muscled the stubborn door open with his shoulder.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs: the verb form looks exactly like the "large muscles" adjective. As a verb it is about forcing a way forward, not about having a build. It works both with an object and without one. Like any past participle, it takes have for the perfect and be for the passive. A heavily muscled figure is the adjective; he had muscled the door open is the verb.

3. 3
   adjective

   Bearing muscles or made up of muscle tissue, as in the walls of an organ.

   The esophagus is a muscled tube that moves food toward the stomach.

   An artery's muscled wall can widen or narrow to control blood flow.

   Similarmuscular

   Note

   Here the word describes rather than admires. It says that a structure contains muscle, not that the muscle is big, so a muscled tube or wall is simply one that can contract. The same spelling does flattering work in the "well-built" meaning. In anatomical prose, the surrounding sentence is what keeps a muscled artery from sounding brawny.

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