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Fig.: That which supplies strength or power. The portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage dowry. Shak. The bodies of men, munition, and money, may justly be called the sinews of war. Sir W. Raleigh.

Having the sinews under the belly shrunk by excessive fatigue.

Furnished with sinews; as, a strong-sinewed youth.

Quality of being sinewy.

Sinewy. [Obs.] Holinshed.

Having no sinews; hence, having no strength or vigor.

Sinewy. [Obs.] Holinshed.

Pertaining to, consisting of, or resembling, a sinew or sinews. The sinewy thread my brain lets fall. Donne.

To strengthen, as with sinews; to invigorate. [Obs.] All members of our cause, . . . That are insinewed to this action. Shak.

To deprive of sinews or of strength. [R.] Dryden.

a slight encounter; a shock or collision; as, to have a brush with an enemy. Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong, And tempt not yet the brushes of the war. Shak.

The chemical basis of ordinary connective tissue, as of tendons or sinews and of bone. On being boiled in water it becomes gelatin or glue.

ex; to combine or associate so as to make intricate or difficult. Nor can his complicated sinews fail. Young. Avarice and luxury very often become one complicated principle of action. Addison. When the disease is complicated with other diseases. Arbuthnot.

nsolidated. [R.] A gentleman [should learn to ride] while he is tender and the brawns and sinews of his thighs not fully consolidate. Elyot.

use to fall in pieces. He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, And crumble all thy sinews. Milton.

s; religion declines; business declines. That empire must decline Whose chief support and sinews are of coin. Waller. And presume to know . . . Who thrives, and who declines. Shak.

Sinew; strength; toughness; as, a man of real fiber. Yet had no fibers in him, nor no force. Chapman.

on, and commonly formed by the effusion of a viscid fluid into it; -- called also weeping sinew. Ganglion cell, a nerve cell. See Illust. under Bipolar.

The act of imprisoning, or the state of being imprisoned; confinement; restraint. His sinews waxen weak and raw Through long imprisonment and hard constraint. Spenser. Every confinement of the person is an imprisonment, whether it be in a common prison, or in a private house, or even by foreibly detaining one in the pu…

in reaching maturity. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will . . . lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live. Ezek. xxxvii. 5, 6.