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The crowing noise made by children affected with spasm of the laryngeal muscles; false croup.

Funnel-shaped; -- applied particularly to a hollow muscle attached to the ball of the eye in many reptiles and mammals.

nce; a disease attended with convulsive twitchings and other involuntary movements of the muscles or limbs.

side of the abdomen, consisting of a pair of stretched membranes, acted upon by powerful muscles. A noted American species (C. septendecim) is called the seventeen year locust. Another common species is the dogday cicada.

ecial parts of the eye itself; as, the ciliary processes of the choroid coat; the ciliary muscle, etc.

A division of passerine birds in which the vocal muscles are but little developed, so that they lack the power of singing.

Shutting; confining; drawing together; as, a claudent muscle. [R.] Jonson

A series of muscular contractions due to sudden stretching of the muscle, -- a sign of certain neuropathies.

A muscle which contracts or closes an orifice, or which compresses an organ; a sphincter.

A twisting; a writhing; wry motion; a twist; as, the contortion of the muscles of the face. Swift. All the contortions of the sibyl, without the inspiration. Burke.

The power possessed by the fibers of living muscle of contracting or shortening.

A state of permanent rigidity or contraction of the muscles, generally of the flexor muscles.

A muscle which contracts the skin of the forehead into wrinkles.

A spasmodic and painful involuntary contraction of a muscle or muscles, as of the leg. The cramp, divers nights, gripeth him in his legs. Sir T. More. Cramp bone, the patella of a sheep; -- formerly used as a charm for the cramp. Halliwell. "He could turn cramp bones into chess men." Dickens. -- Cramp ring, a ring for…

A white, crystalline, nitrogenous substance found abundantly in muscle tissue. [Written also kreatine.]

its properties, formed from the latter by the action of acids, and occurring naturally in muscle tissue and in urine. [Written also kretinine.]

A thin muscle which serves to draw up the testicle.

A painful, spasmodic affection of the muscles of some part of the body, as of the neck or back, rendering it difficult to move the part. To those also that, with a crick or cramp, have thei necks drawn backward. Holland.

A very slight convulsive or spasmodic contraction of certain muscles, external or internal. Few men can look down from a great height without creepings and crispations. O. W. Holmes.

which are supposed to resemble a pair of legs; as, the crura of the diaphragm, a pair of muscles attached to it; crura cerebri, two bundles of nerve fibers in the base of the brain, connecting the medulla and the forebrain.