to pull a muscle
8
2.9
- phrasal verb
:
lesionarse un músculo
- I think I might have pulled a muscle.
- I just pulled a muscle
- I probably pulled a muscle
- Pull a muscle playing
After the third one, Carvalho went to the to the coach and said he was feeling tired, that he could pull a muscle if he play the next game.
- After the third one, Carvalho went to the to the coach and said he was feeling tired, that he could pull a muscle if he play the next game.
- Advil took an Advil if you pulled a muscle or something Like super, super predictable MDMA.
Examples
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I pulled a muscle playing football.
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- I think I pulled a muscle in my leg this morning.
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I pulled a muscle in my back from yelling.
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I think I pulled a muscle in my rib cage.
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She must have pulled a muscle or something because she winced with pain.
Fiction book (1999) -
I pulled a muscle.
Fiction book (1998) -
If we're gonna do kung fu, you don't wanna pull a muscle or something.
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Earlier this week, I pulled a muscle in my neck/shoulder, which has given me a few days of being laid up at home, watching Salt, eating muffins, and musing.
Blog text (7) -
But then one day I was sick or I had shin splints or I had some tweak or pulled a muscle and I wasn't able to be out front.
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I think I might have pulled a muscle.
Synonyms
1
5.6
To pull a muscle too far and hurt it
How Severe
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from 'pull' (apply force/overstretch) and 'muscle' (body tissue), so a learner who knows those words can infer that it refers to injuring or straining a muscle; the indefinite article 'a' does not alter the compositional meaning. This simple, physical-action construction is cross-linguistically common, making the expression transparently interpretable by B1 learners.
Etymology
Pull a muscle comes from the simple picture of a muscle being tugged or stretched too far. The verb pull and the word muscle show the action and body part, so the phrase means 'to injure' or strain a muscle and feel pain.