| Contract |
n. |
To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action. |
| Contract |
n. |
To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit. |
| Contract |
n. |
To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease. |
| Contract |
n. |
To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for. |
| Contract |
n. |
To betroth; to affiance. |
| Contract |
n. |
To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one. |
| Contract |
v. i. |
To be drawn together so as to be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet. |
| Contract |
v. i. |
To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail. |
| Contract |
a. |
Contracted; as, a contract verb. |
| Contract |
a. |
Contracted; affianced; betrothed. |
| Contract |
n. |
The agreement of two or more persons, upon a sufficient consideration or cause, to do, or to abstain from doing, some act; an agreement in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing; a formal bargain; a compact; an interchange of legal rights. |
| Contract |
n. |
A formal writing which contains the agreement of parties, with the terms and conditions, and which serves as a proof of the obligation. |
| Contract |
n. |
The act of formally betrothing a man and woman. |
| Contract system |
|
The sweating system. |
| Contract system |
|
The system of employing convicts by selling their labor (to be performed inside the prison) at a fixed price per day to contractors who are allowed to have agents in the prison to superintend the work. |
| Contract tablet |
|
A clay tablet on which was inscribed a contract, for safe keeping. Such tablets were inclosed in an outer case (often called the envelope), on which was inscribed a duplicate of the inscription on the inclosed tablet. |
| Contracted |
imp. & p. p. |
of Contract |
| Contracted |
a. |
Drawn together; shrunken; wrinkled; narrow; as, a contracted brow; a contracted noun. |
| Contracted |
a. |
Narrow; illiberal; selfish; as, a contracted mind; contracted views. |
| Contracted |
a. |
Bargained for; betrothed; as, a contracted peace. |
| Contractedness |
n. |
The state of being contracted; narrowness; meanness; selfishness. |
| Contractibility |
n. |
Capability of being contracted; quality of being contractible; as, the contractibility and dilatability of air. |
| Contractible |
a. |
Capable of contraction. |
| Contractibleness |
n. |
Contractibility. |
| Contractile |
a. |
tending to contract; having the power or property of contracting, or of shrinking into shorter or smaller dimensions; as, the contractile tissues. |
| Contractility |
n. |
The quality or property by which bodies shrink or contract. |
| Contractility |
n. |
The power possessed by the fibers of living muscle of contracting or shortening. |
| Contracting |
p. pr. & vb. n. |
of Contract |
| Contraction |
n. |
The act or process of contracting, shortening, or shrinking; the state of being contracted; as, contraction of the heart, of the pupil of the eye, or of a tendion; the contraction produced by cold. |
| Contraction |
n. |
The process of shortening an operation. |
| Contraction |
n. |
The act of incurring or becoming subject to, as liabilities, obligation, debts, etc.; the process of becoming subject to; as, the contraction of a disease. |
| Contraction |
n. |
Something contracted or abbreviated, as a word or phrase;
as, plenipo for plenipotentiary; crim. con. for criminal conversation, etc. |
| Contraction |
n. |
The shortening of a word, or of two words, by the omission of a letter or letters, or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one; as, ne'er for never; can't for can not; don't for do not; it's for it is. |
| Contraction |
n. |
A marriage contract. |
| Contractive |
a. |
Tending to contract; having the property or power or power of contracting. |
| Contractor |
n. |
One who contracts; one of the parties to a bargain; one who covenants to do anything for another; specifically, one who contracts to perform work on a rather large scale, at a certain price or rate, as in building houses or making a railroad. |
| Contracture |
n. |
A state of permanent rigidity or contraction of the muscles, generally of the flexor muscles. |
