Cf. FLECTOR. [a. mod.L. flexor, agent-n. f. flectĕre (ppl. stem flex-) to bend.]
1. A muscle whose function it is to produce flexion in any part of the body. Opposed to extensor.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 743. The two Flexors and the two extensors.
1726. Monro, Anat. Bones, 331. The inferior broad Surface is concave, for allowing a safe Passage to the Flexors of the great Toe.
1880. Huxley, Crayfish, iii. 99. The flexors of the abdomen constitute a very much larger mass of muscle, the fibres of which are curiously twisted, like the strands of a rope.
2. attrib. in flexor muscle, surface, tendon.
1726. Monro, Anat. Bones, 328. Before these Protuberances this Bone is concave, for lodging the Flexor-muscles.
a. 1735. Arbuthnot, Mem. Scrib., x. Wks. (1892), 345. Flatterers, who have the flexor muscles so strong that they are always bowing and cringing, he supposed might in some measure be corrected by being tied down upon a tree by the back, like the children of Indians.
1847. Youatt, Horse, i. 14. There would often be injury through the whole course of the flexor tendon.
1881. Mivart, in Nature, No. 615. 337/1. The grip is yet further aided by a spine which projects vertically from the inner, or flexor, surface of each finger or toe.
