CONTRACTION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Contraction

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/kəntrˈækʃən/ Listen

noun

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 tendon; the contraction produced by cold.

(Math.) The process of shortening an operation.

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.

Something contracted or abbreviated, as a word or phrase; as, plenipo for plenipotentiary; crim. con. for criminal conversation, etc.

(Gram.) 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.

A marriage contract. (Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Contraction'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Contraction" Quotes from Famous Books

... function is restored. This system confines itself mostly to chronic diseases. In the paralysis of the young, in defective volition from hysteria, in impaired local nutrition, in local deformities dependent on muscular contraction, and in lateral curvature of the spine, it unquestionably often produces the best results. Its advocates claim for it much more. On its further benefits we are unable to decide. Like all things else, ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, 1859 • Various

... to Mrs Clennam on the subject of her health, coupled with the remark that, 'happening to find himself in that direction,' he had looked in to inquire, on behalf of his proprietor, how she found herself. Mrs Clennam, with a deep contraction of her brows, was ...

— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens

... natural decomposition of the rock on the spot. The alternate heat of the day and cold of the night—a cold which is often great, owing to the radiation into a cloudless sky—split the masses by alternate expansion and contraction, make great flakes peel off them like the coats of an onion, and give them these singularly picturesque shapes. All this part of the country is as eminently fit for a landscape painter as Bechuanaland and the more level ...

— Impressions of South Africa • James Bryce

... Forum. It must be the effect of the experience, at all extended, that when you think of Rome afterwards you will think still respectfully and regretfully enough of the Vatican and the Pincio, the streets and the picture-making street life; but will even more wonder, with an irrepressible contraction of the heart, when again you shall feel yourself bounding over the flower-smothered turf, or pass from one framed picture to another beside the open arches of the crumbling aqueducts. You look back at the City so ...

— Italian Hours • Henry James

... yet, for it is not said to be like five, but ten virgins. It is worthy of our careful thought that it is to be made perfect by contraction, not expansion. The King is to say "Depart!" as ...

— Broken Bread - from an Evangelist's Wallet • Thomas Champness

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