flex

Though O’Brien is flexing his emotional range here, his hunky sincerity lands in part because Sweeney remains steady in the opposite registry.

He flexes his metatarsal bones to indicate where he wants a subordinate to sit.

But in a time of destabilizing politics, war, famine and a general sense that nothing is really in control, these low-effort expressions offer a little flex of influence.

The show of force was so obviously an authoritarian flex that Newsom filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding to know who authorized what and why.

They had recently won full control of every statewide office and were tentatively flexing their newfound authority after decades on the sidelines.