sinew
/ˈsɪnjuː
/noun
1A piece of tough fibrous tissue uniting muscle to bone; a tendon or ligament: the sinews in her neck [mass noun]: he was all muscle and sinew...
- Surely he's made of rubber and elastic, rather than skin and bone, muscles and sinews.
- Tough sinew was made from their tendons for stitching the heavy hides together.
- The liver then may fail to nourish the sinews; muscles develop tension and weakness.
1.1 (usually sinews) The parts of a structure, system, or organization that give it strength or bind it together: the sinews of government...
- Of course, finding the sinews to knit together your comedy muscles can be tricky.
- Electricity and water on tap ease the burden of domestic labour for African women, but they may also help to snap some of the remaining sinews that hold together old rural lifestyles.
- In this silence, alert us to the wailing of people in peril, awaken us to possibilities of perfection, attune us to the sinews of strength that we share, so that our hands will not be lifted in destruction.
verb [with object] (usually as adjective sinewed) literary
Strengthen with or as if with sinews: the sinewed shape of his back...
- One must be conscious that the culture of catastrophic memorialisation is sinewed with manipulations, lacunae and corruptions of historical reality.
- The giant, sinewed fighter turned his head to the cave entrance.
Derivatives
sinewless
- The sinewed and sinewless meat may then be blended together.
- The present invention is directed to a meat product which includes both sinewed and sinewless meat and in which the fibrous character of the meat is retained.
- While India quivered with the Japanese threat to its sinewless, amorphous soul, calm words came from China's headquarters.
Origin
Old English sin(e)we 'tendon', of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zeen and German Sehne.