SINEWY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sinewy mean? 

• SINEWY (adjective)
  The adjective SINEWY has 3 senses:

1. (of meat) full of sinews; especially impossible to chew

2. consisting of tendons or resembling a tendon

3. (of a person) possessing physical strength and weight; rugged and powerful

  Familiarity information: SINEWY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SINEWY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(of meat) full of sinews; especially impossible to chew

Synonyms:

fibrous; sinewy; stringy; unchewable

Similar:

tough (resistant to cutting or chewing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Consisting of tendons or resembling a tendon

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

sinewy; tendinous

Pertainym:

sinew (a cord or band of inelastic tissue connecting a muscle with its bony attachment)

Derivation:

sinew (a cord or band of inelastic tissue connecting a muscle with its bony attachment)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(of a person) possessing physical strength and weight; rugged and powerful

Synonyms:

brawny; hefty; muscular; powerful; sinewy

Context example:

powerful arms

Similar:

strong (having strength or power greater than average or expected)

Derivation:

sinew (possessing muscular strength)

 Context examples 

Again I gripped him by the sleeve, and felt the thin, sinewy arm beneath it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Tall and sinewy, and brown, clear-eyed, hard-featured, with the stern and prompt bearing of experienced soldiers, it would be hard indeed for a leader to seek for a choicer following.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I looked at him, his proud, eagle face, and his tall, sinewy figure, and I wondered whether in the whole land there was a finer, handsomer man.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A sinewy hand, dripping with water, was clutching the rail.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, sinewy neck.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When I got back with the basin, the doctor had already ripped up the captain's sleeve and exposed his great sinewy arm.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

His gold watch-chain was so massive, that a fancy came across me, that he ought to have a sinewy golden arm, to draw it out with, like those which are put up over the goldbeaters' shops.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I could not see any cause for it, for the howling of the wolves had ceased altogether; but just then the moon, sailing through the black clouds, appeared behind the jagged crest of a beetling, pine-clad rock, and by its light I saw around us a ring of wolves, with white teeth and lolling red tongues, with long, sinewy limbs and shaggy hair.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

His cowl was thrown back upon his shoulders, and his gown, unfastened at the top, disclosed a round, sinewy neck, ruddy and corded like the bark of the fir.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As he stood, looking at his cap for a little while before beginning to speak, I could not help observing what power and force of character his sinewy hand expressed, and what a good and trusty companion it was to his honest brow and iron-grey hair.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)