different between strength vs muscleless

English

Etymology

From Middle English strengthe, from Old English strengþu (“strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *strangiþu (“strongness; strength”), equivalent to strong +? -th. Cognate with Dutch strengte (“strength”), German Low German Strengde, Strengte (“harshness; rigidity; strictness; severity”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /st???k?/, [st??????k?], [st?????n??]
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): [st??????k?]
• Rhymes: -???, -?n?

Noun

strength (countable and uncountable, plural strengths)

1. The quality or degree of being strong.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5,^[1]

     Our castle’s strength will laugh a siege to scorn.

   Antonym: weakness

2. The intensity of a force or power; potency.
   • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

     Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

3. The strongest part of something; that on which confidence or reliance is based.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 46.1,^[2]

     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

   • 1649, Jeremy Taylor, The Great Examplar of Sanctity and Holy Life according to the Christian Institution, London: Francis Ash, Part 1, Section 4, Discourse 2, p. 66,^[3]

     […] certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations, then is deposited in an obedient understanding […] .

4. A positive attribute.

   Antonym: weakness

5. (obsolete) An armed force, a body of troops.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act IV, Scene 3,^[4]

     Thou princely leader of our English strength,

     Never so needful on the earth of France,

   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act II, Scene 1,^[5]

     That done, dissever your united strengths,

     And part your mingled colours once again;

6. (obsolete) A strong place; a stronghold.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 7, lines 140-143,^[6]

     All like himself rebellious, by whose aid

     This inaccessible high strength, the seat

     Of Deitie supream, us dispossest,

     He trusted to have seis’d […]

Synonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

strength (third-person singular simple present strengths, present participle strengthing, simple past and past participle strengthed)

1. (obsolete) To strengthen (all senses). [12th-17th c.]

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:strengthen

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,^[1]

     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,^[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.