muscles

verb

present tense third-person singular of muscle
1
as in forces
to cause (a person) to give in to pressure he was muscled out of command by his opponents at military headquarters

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in pushes
to force one's way muscling straight through the packed crowd of people waiting to board the ship

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of muscles Which muscles the farmer’s walk targets The move works nearly the entire body, but leg muscles, the core and shoulder muscles carry most of the load. — Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 24 July 2026 One year later, the XFL muscles its way onto the national sports scene with its first two games. — Assistant Sports Editor, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2026 Gringo Films does not sound like the kind of company that muscles its way into the global animation business. — Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 29 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for muscles
  1. forces
  2. pushes
  3. compels
  4. shoulders
  5. coerces
  6. elbows
  7. squeezes
Verb
  • Handwriting is slower than typing, which forces people to summarize and rephrase a teacher or coach’s point in their own words.
    — Rustin Dodd, New York Times, 3 Sep. 2026
  • The case forces a prime minister to resign Fenech was involved in a consortium that won a controversial contract with the Maltese government to build a power station.
    — Kevin Schembri Orland, Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of forces
Verb
  • Saudia Cargo will double its fleet, adding four Boeing 777-200F jets over more than two years, as Saudi Arabia pushes to become a logistics hub linking three continents.
    — semafor.com, semafor.com, 4 Sep. 2026
  • When a power user pushes for an extensive, long-form synthesis, the system's optimization guardrails actively fight the input to keep token generation low, sacrificing depth to protect processing margins.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of pushes
Verb
  • The deal compels Facebook and Instagram to adopt new child-safety rules, including daily time caps, school-hour notification bans, stronger age checks and expanded parental controls aimed at harmful content.
    — Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2026
  • Washington also opposed another streaming regulation, known as Bill 109, passed in Quebec last December, which compels streaming platforms to prioritize French-language content.
    — Lex Harvey, CNN Money, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of compels
Verb
  • Elordi nearly shoulders the running time but plays his Hig a bit too humbly.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 2026
  • There are also fears the plan may spark a lawsuit as tensions between the states over who shoulders the cuts bubble over.
    — Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of shoulders
Verb
  • However, the rotation of this filament clearly dominates how the galaxies within it spin, perhaps by funneling hydrogen gas along the dark-matter filament and onto the galaxies in a way that coerces their spin while providing further fuel for star formation.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 4 Dec. 2025
  • Haunted by the suspicious death of his ailing mother, Ali, a university professor, coerces his enigmatic gardener to execute a cold-blooded act of vengeance.
    — Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 14 Nov. 2025
Definition of coerces
Verb
  • Where the Cayenne’s steering is calibrated so that the road nudges the driver, Bentley’s elbows back at those perturbances.
    — Byron Hurd, The Drive, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Montana props himself up on a utility stool for our interview, elbows on a wood table, while holding his phone in his hand.
    — Selena Fragassi, SPIN, 30 July 2026
Definition of elbows
Verb
  • That obviously makes Labor Day a particularly good excuse to mix a cocktail that squeezes a little more out of summer.
    — Emily Price, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026
  • After leaving Vancouver, the route follows the Fraser River through the fertile Fraser Valley and into the Coast Mountains, passing Hell’s Gate, where the river squeezes through a narrow canyon, before arriving in Kamloops for the night.
    — Lauren Dana Ellman, Travel + Leisure, 30 Aug. 2026
Definition of squeezes

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Cite this Entry

“Muscles.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/muscles. Accessed 5 Sep. 2026.

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