a. and sb. [a. L. biceps, bicipit-, f. bi- two + -ceps = caput head.]
A. adj. Having two heads or summits; spec. applied to muscles (see B).
1634. Read, Body of Man, 77. The 1. muscle of the cubit, cald Biceps.
1717. Berkeley, in Fraser, Life (1871), 588. In Strabo’s time it [Vesuvius] seems to have been neither biceps, nor to have had a hollow.
1863. Reade, in All Y. Round, 3 Oct., 123/2. A gentle timidity that contrasted prettily with her biceps muscle.
B. sb. A muscle with two heads or tendinous attachments; spec. that on the front of the upper arm, which bends the fore-arm; also the corresponding muscle of the thigh; the former of these is often humorously referred to as the type or standard of physical strength.
1650. Read, Muscles of Body. The ulna is bended by two [muscles], to wit, biceps and brachiæus internus.
1865. Daily Tel., 8 Nov., 4/5. The training which gives him back his healthy sleep, his appetite, and his biceps.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., viii. 293. The biceps is the well known muscle used in flexing the arm.
