muscling

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of muscle.

   She kept muscling forward despite the defenders blocking her path.

   The senator is muscling the bill through committee against fierce opposition.

   Note

   The -ing form drops the final e of muscle and keeps both of the verb's patterns. With an object it means forcing something along, as in muscling a bill through committee. Without one it means pushing yourself forward, as in muscling past defenders. The same spelling also serves as a noun for the body's muscles taken together, so heavy muscling points to the noun, not the verb.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The muscles of the body considered collectively; the overall musculature.

   The vet praised the lamb's even muscling along the loin and hindquarters.

   Heavy training built thick muscling through her legs and core.

   Similarmusculature

   Note

   A word for build rather than for any single muscle. It names how much muscle a body carries and where it sits, so it takes adjectives of amount and shape (thick, even, heavy) and never a plural. It is most at home in describing how an animal stands and is put together. Keep it apart from the growth process, which means muscle in the making rather than muscle already there.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The process by which muscle tissue forms and grows.

   Adequate protein supports healthy muscling in growing animals.

   The trainer described how muscling develops through steady resistance work.

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