Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various straight muscles, as of the abdomen, eye, neck, and thigh.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In anatomy, one of several muscles so called from the straightness of their course, either in their own axis or in the axis of the body or part where they lie.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Anat.) A straight muscle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun anatomy Any of several straight muscles in various parts of the body, as of the abdomen, thigh, eye etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of various straight muscles

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin (mūsculus) rēctus, from Latin, straight (muscle); see rectum.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Latin phrase "(musculus) rectus", or "a straight (muscle)".

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