Word.ws English Dictionary

on the muscle

on the muscle prepositional phrase: of a horse: frisky and energetic, seeming keen to race.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Of a horse: frisky and energetic, seeming keen to race.
    • Tallhato was "on the muscle" going down the backside, attempting to run out. That's not the formula to beat a filly like Windy's Daughter.1973, Chronicle of the Horse, volume 36, numbers 1-13, page 5
    • I really wasn't able to rest him too much because he was on the muscle more than usual tonight.1990, Harness Horse, volume 56, numbers 5-8, page 22

Questions about on the muscle

What does on the muscle mean?
On the muscle means of a horse: frisky and energetic, seeming keen to race.
What part of speech is on the muscle?
On the muscle is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the muscle in the dictionary

  1. on the mending hand
  2. on the merits
  3. on the money
  4. on the mop
  5. on the move
  6. on the muscle
  7. on the nail
  8. on the needle
  9. on the nick
  10. on the nod
  11. on the nose

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the muscle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “on the muscle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_muscle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.