MUSCLE, AS A VERB

Verb

muscle (third-person singular simple present muscles, present participle muscling, simple past and past participle muscled)

1. To use force to make progress, especially physical force. quotations ▼He muscled his way through the crowd.

Derived terms

• outmuscle

Verb

outmuscle (third-person singular simple present outmuscles, present participle outmuscling, simple past and past participle outmuscled)

1. (transitive) To surpass in a contest involving strength. quotations ▲
   • 2009 March 30, William C. Rhoden, “For Coaches, Recruiting Top Players Can Lead to a Dark Side”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

UConn barreled through the West Regional, pummeling Purdue in the semifinals and outmuscling Missouri in the final.

• • 2016 November 28, Mike Vorkunov, “Despite Flash of Rose’s Prime, Knicks Are Dazed by Westbrook and Thunder”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

For most of the game they were outmuscled and outplayed, which left them bruised, physically and emotionally. […] “They just outmuscled us,” Knicks Coach Jeff Hornacek said. “Outmuscled and then, for a stretch, out-hustled.”