muscleless

muscleless

English

Etymology

From muscle +‎ -less.

Adjective

muscleless (not comparable)

1. Lacking muscle tissue.
   • 1904, James Branch Cabell, The Eagle’s Shadow, New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., Chapter 3, p. 33,

     Many people came there now—masculine women and muscleless men, for the most part.

   • 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, 2001, Part Two, Chapter 5,

     Sometimes she stood them in lines in her room and made them recite arithmetic tables, flogging the inaccurate with as much vigour as her arms would allow, flabby, muscleless arms, broad and loose towards the armpit, and swinging like dead flesh.

   • 2000, M. Benjamin & J. R. Ralphs, "The Cell and Developmental Biology of Tendons and Ligaments", International Review of Cytology, page 116

     In all these studies, the tendons that develop best in muscleless limbs are digital tendons.

2. Feeble, weak, lacking strength or power.
   • 1901, Duffield Osborne, The Lion’s Brood, Part II, Chapter 2,

     As they came near, even Marcia could note the sleek, soft look of the men, and their listless, muscleless gait; while their leader's hair and person literally reeked with perfumes.

   • 2005, George Peper (ed.), The Secret of Golf, page 382

     I stress that a golfer cannot ever be too boneless or too loose, nor too muscleless.