Free translatorFree translator
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Contraction   /kəntrˈækʃən/   Listen
Contraction

noun
1.
(physiology) a shortening or tensing of a part or organ (especially of a muscle or muscle fiber).  Synonyms: muscle contraction, muscular contraction.
2.
The process or result of becoming smaller or pressed together.  Synonyms: compression, condensation.
3.
A word formed from two or more words by omitting or combining some sounds.  "'o'clock' is a contraction of 'of the clock'"
4.
The act of decreasing (something) in size or volume or quantity or scope.



Related searches:



WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"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

... the singular, dual and plural numbers, the usual persons and tenses, and three principal moods, viz., indicative, imperative and conditional. The verb-stem and a contraction of the pronoun are incorporated, and the word thus formed is used in ...
— The Gundungurra Language • R. H. Mathews

... word in popular use as an expression of thanks, and it now means nothing more than "thank you!" But it is really a contraction of spasi Bog! "God save (you)!" as our "Good-bye!" is of "God ...
— Russian Fairy Tales - A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore • W. R. S. Ralston

... the common topics of the day, with all the evidence of one enjoying the moment, and glad to contribute to its enjoyment; and yet, in all this ease, I could see that remoter thoughts, from time to time, passed through his mind. In the midst of our gaiety, the contraction of his deep and noble brows showed that he was wandering far away from the slight topics of the table; and I could imagine what he might be, when struggling against the gigantic strength of Pitt, or thundering ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 • Various

... form a kind of interior annulus of a circle on the left. When the air is dry, it contracts, draws its companion to the right, and becomes itself the interior annulus. In order to show this dilatation and contraction, an index is fixed on the upper end of two of the slips; a plate of metal or wood is fastened to the front of the plinth, so as to cover the two slips from the eye. A slit, being nearly the portion of a circle, is cut in this plate, so that the shank ...
— The Writings of Thomas Jefferson - Library Edition - Vol. 6 (of 20) • Thomas Jefferson

... Look to the door then, Katey. That was what made me so ready to fall in love with Laetitia. Her figure was graceful, and I think, even now, her face would have been beautiful but for a certain contraction of the skin over the nostrils, suggesting an invisible thumb and forefinger pinching them, which repelled me, although I did not then know what it indicated. I had not been with her one evening before the impression it made on me had vanished, ...
— The Portent & Other Stories • George MacDonald

... hot kernels were transferred directly from the oven pans to clean, dry, hot jars, and sealed immediately. Contraction of the air as the jars cooled resulted in ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Incorporated 39th Annual Report - at Norris, Tenn. September 13-15 1948 • Various

... form, slow down slightly, and sound a note or two of the hooter? Suppose another car were—well, that was all right: the road was clear; but at the next turning, when our car neither slackened nor hooted and WAS for an instant full on the wrong side of the road, I had within me a contraction which (at thought of what must have been if—) lasted though all was well. Loath to betray fear, I hadn't turned my face to Pethel. Eyes front! And how about that wagon ahead, huge hay-wagon plodding with its back to us, seeming to occupy whole road? Surely Pethel ...
— James Pethel • Max Beerbohm

... its strokes in the air; which, vibrating upon the external parts of the patient, is communicated to the whole nervous system, and produces that happy alteration in the solids and fluids which so effectually contributes to the cure. The contraction of the solids, he says, impresses new mathematical motions and directions to the fluids; in one or both of which is seated all distempers, and without any other help than a continuance of faith, ...
— Thaumaturgia • An Oxonian

... tendency. For the latter are not subjected to the former as a lever, or walking-stick to the muscles; the more intense the life is, the less does elasticity, for instance, appear as elasticity. It sinks down into the nearest approach to its physical form by a series of degrees from the contraction and elongation of the irritable muscle to the physical hardness of the insensitive nail. The lower powers are assimilated, not merely employed, and assimilation presupposes the homogeneous nature of the thing assimilated; else it is a miracle, only not the same as that of a creation, because ...
— Hints towards the formation of a more comprehensive theory of life. • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... the old man, 'to the Castle wall. When you are tied up, you see its stones expanding and contracting violently, and a similar expansion and contraction seem to take place in your own head and breast. Then, there is a rush of fire and an earthquake, and the Castle springs into the air, and you tumble ...
— The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices • Charles Dickens

... Margot felt the quick contraction of the heart which she experienced afresh at every sight of Edith's changed face, but next moment she whistled softly in the familiar key, and saw the light flash back. Edith sprang to the door, and ...
— Big Game - A Story for Girls • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... this dismissal was an act of kindness [rather than a punishment]. But the new canons, which have not been framed in the Synods, but have been made according to the private judgment of the Popes, both prohibit the contraction of marriages, and dissolve them when contracted; and this is to be done openly, contrary to the command of Christ, Matt. 19, 6: What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. In the Confutation the adversaries ...
— The Apology of the Augsburg Confession • Philip Melanchthon

... weapon. I got these from two policemen who tried to arrest me an hour or so ago. And I also remind you, Senhor, that if the armed men you have posted to prevent my escape try to shoot me, that the inevitable contraction of my muscles will send two bullets into your heart—even if I am dead. I am a dead man, Senhor, if you give the word, but so are you if you ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, May, 1930 • Various

... popularize the discovery. A fire without light, compared to the heat which gathers in a haystack when the hay has been stored before it was properly dry—heat, in short, as an agitation of the particles—is the motive cause of the contraction and dilatations of the heart. Those finer particles of the blood which become extremely rarefied during this process pass off in two directions—one portion, and the least important in the theory, to the organs of generation, the other ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 2 - "Demijohn" to "Destructor" • Various

... most magnificent festival in his villa! There was a little performance there in which Mentor and I allowed ourselves to be persuaded to take part. But just see how the beautiful ship uses the narrow passage between the two triremes, as if it had the bloodleech's power of contraction! But to return to the festival of Archias: the oyster ragout served ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... of this system may be attributed to the scarcity of labour brought about especially by the Black Death. When men could not be had in sufficient number, the necessary consequences was the expansion of pasture and the contraction of tillage; and this dual process was assisted by the stampede of labourers to the towns and the policy of enclosure to which landowners resorted as a remedy. Deprived of their quit-rents, and not having resources for the payment of wages on an adequate scale, supposing that labour was obtainable ...
— The Customs of Old England • F. J. Snell

... opposite the princess and her niece. Though he seemingly endured with the most Christianly patience all the railleries of the young woman who possessed all kinds of precious mines, the furtive glance he cast on her now and then, and the contraction of his thin lips, betrayed the rancour that filled his heart and foreboded ...
— A Cardinal Sin • Eugene Sue

... the woodpeckers and jays—was hushed by their advance. So through the forest, which was tolerably close, the dark line swept quietly forward until there came from somewhere a sudden signal, and with a still more cautious advance and contraction of the line as the peninsula narrowed the quarry was brought ...
— The Story of Ab - A Tale of the Time of the Cave Man • Stanley Waterloo

... has been suggested that "M. or N." originated in a misreading of "NOM," a contraction for "nomen." This is certainly an ingenious explanation, though ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 26. Saturday, April 27, 1850 • Various

... more true, gentlemen. I have it from our friend the Priest (Lepretre), [Footnote: The name Lepretre is a contraction of the two words "le pretre," meaning the priest; hence the name under which this man died.] who saw him relay at Lyons one hour before me, and ...
— The Companions of Jehu • Alexandre Dumas, pere

... prisoner at the bar, too, seemed more dejected than I had presumed from his former intrepidity; and the few glances which I could suffer myself to give to a being in his calamitous condition, showed me a frequent writhing of the lip, a clenching of the teeth, and a nervous contraction of the features, which looked like despair. At length the counsel for the defence rose. It was the first instance of my seeing the memorable Curran engaged in his profession. I had met him from time to time in general society, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 356, June, 1845 • Various

... from them; (4th), to the action of the air on the under surfaces of the wings; (5th), to the ever-varying power with which the wings are urged, this being greatest at the beginning of the down-stroke, and least at the end of the up one; (6th), to the contraction of the voluntary muscles and elastic ligaments, and to the effect produced by the various inclined surfaces formed by the wings during their oscillations; (7th), to the weight of the bird—weight itself, when acting upon ...
— Love's Meinie - Three Lectures on Greek and English Birds • John Ruskin

... now seen more clearly than at any earlier period, that most of the planets possess special characteristics which distinguish them from one another, and that such an origin as Laplace suggested—the slow cooling and contraction of one vast sun-mist or nebula, besides presenting inherent difficulties—many think them impossibilities—in itself does not afford an adequate explanation of these peculiarities. Hence has arisen what is termed the Meteoritic theory, which has been ably advocated for many years by Sir Norman ...
— Is Mars Habitable? • Alfred Russel Wallace

... large part of the people in the West were finding fault with "contraction." Calling in the greenbacks, they held, was making money scarce and lowering prices. Congress, therefore, in 1868 yielded to the pressure, and ordered that further contraction should stop and that there should not be less than $356,000,000 ...
— A School History of the United States • John Bach McMaster

... correlatives are often used in poetry for neither ... nor (Shakespeare often omitting the former altogether), and are equally correct. Nor is only a contraction of neither, and the first may as well be contracted ...
— Milton's Comus • John Milton

... worthy house-mate, old Trotter. The old gentleman, in spite of his warlike title, had a most pacific appearance. He was large and fat, with a broad, hazy, muffin face, a sleepy eye, and a full double chin. He had a deep ravine from each corner of his mouth, not occasioned by any irascible contraction of the muscles, but apparently the deep-worn channels of two rivulets of gravy that oozed out from the huge mouthfuls that he masticated. But I forbear to dwell on the odd beings that were congregated ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... to bad. We say from the Saxon, good; the Dane, god; the Goth, gods; the German, gut; the Dutch, goed; the Latin, bonus; the Greek, kalos; the Hebrew, tob; the Egyptian, mo. Hence, with the addition of more, or the contraction mor, we have the word Mormon, which ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn

... Apple and Hand.* [footnote... These illustrations serve to illustrate one of the most potent of geological agencies which has given the earth's surface its grandest characteristics. I mean the elevation of mountain ranges through the contraction of the globe as a whole. By the action of gravity the former larger surface crushes down, as it were, the contracting interior; and the superfluous matter, which belonged to a bigger globe, arranges itself ...
— James Nasmyth's Autobiography • James Nasmyth

... wider, or expansion, Drawing nearer, or contraction, Falling, rising, Slanting, crossing, Convex, concave, curved lines, Convex, concave, ...
— The Infant System - For Developing the Intellectual and Moral Powers of all Children, - from One to Seven years of Age • Samuel Wilderspin

... the root-hairs on the petioles would supply them with sufficient moisture. We shall hereafter see that many seedlings are protected from frost, but by a widely different process, namely, by being drawn beneath the surface by the contraction of their radicles. We may, however, believe that the extraordinary manner of germination of Megarrhiza has another and secondary advantage. The radicle begins in a few weeks to enlarge into a little tuber, ...
— The Power of Movement in Plants • Charles Darwin

... N. decrease, diminution; lessening &c v.; subtraction &c 38; reduction, abatement, declension; shrinking &c (contraction.) 195; coarctation^; abridgment &c (shortening) 201; extenuation. subsidence, wane, ebb, decline; ebbing; descent &c 306; decrement, reflux, depreciation; deterioration &c 659; anticlimax; mitigation &c (moderation) 174. V. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... brave, so sweet and tender were the accents in which he spoke these few simple works, that the tears filled Angela's eyes, and Abbe Vergniaud, resting his head on one hand, felt a strange contraction in his throat, and began to think of possible happy days yet to be passed perchance in seclusion with this long- denied son of his, who had sprung out of the secret ways of love, first to slay and then to redeem him. Could there be a more plain and exact measuring out of law? If he had ...
— The Master-Christian • Marie Corelli

... instant is in a state of equilibrium. Its internal heat and the centrifugal force due to its rotation about an axis are trying to expand it. Its own gravitational power is trying to draw all of its materials to the center. Until there is a loss of heat no contraction can occur; but just as soon as there is such a loss gravity proceeds to diminish the stellar volume. Contraction will proceed more slowly than we should at first thought expect, because in the process of contraction additional heat is generated ...
— Popular Science Monthly Volume 86

... child labor is only allowed conditionally. The great majority of these are industries involving special risk through the disengagement of dust-particles or vapors; while a few are ranked as dangerous, owing to risk of fire and the contraction ...
— Women Wage-Earners - Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future • Helen Campbell

... animal did not take the anaesthetic well, and part of the experiment was made under INCOMPLETE ANAESTHESIA." There was noted, also, "contraction of the abdominal muscles, on account of ...
— An Ethical Problem - Or, Sidelights upon Scientific Experimentation on Man and Animals • Albert Leffingwell

... used simply for those notions of external things which our organs of sense bring us acquainted with originally" (thus far the proposition, though vague, is unexceptionable in meaning), "and is defined a contraction, a motion, or configuration, of the fibres which constitute the immediate organ of sense." Our notions, a configuration of the fibres! What kind of logician must he be who thinks that a phenomenon is defined to be the ...
— A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive • John Stuart Mill

... the choir was necessitated by the fact that the towers of St. Anselm and St. Andrew had survived the great fire of 1174. Naturally the pious builders did not wish to pull down these relics of the former church, so that a certain amount of contraction had to be effected in order that these towers should form part of the new plan. This arrangement also fitted in with the determination to build a chapel of the martyred St. Thomas at the end of the church, on the site of the ...
— The Cathedral Church of Canterbury [2nd ed.]. • Hartley Withers

... communist country struggling to enter the European market economy, suffered a major economic downturn in 1996 and 1997, with triple digit inflation and GDP contraction of 10.6% and 6.9%. The current government - which took office in May 1997 after pre-term parliamentary elections - stabilized the economy and promoted growth by implementing a currency board, practicing sound financial ...
— The 2001 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... either "B.-P." or "Bathing Towel." To his family he has always been Ste. This name, a contraction of Stephenson, was found for him by his big brothers in the days when home-made soldiers and birds'-nesting were life's ...
— The Story of Baden-Powell - 'The Wolf That Never Sleeps' • Harold Begbie

... particular action, should say, first of all, that for this reason I am now sitting here, because my body is composed of bones and sinews and that the bones are hard, and have joints separate from each other, but that the sinews, being capable of tension and contraction, cover the bones, together with the flesh and skin which contain them. The bones, therefore, being suspended in their sockets, the nerves, relaxing and tightening, enable me to bend my limbs as I now do, and from this cause I sit here bent up. 109. And if, again, ...
— Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Socrates • Plato

... Liz was Ranald's contraction for Lizette, the name of the French horse-trainer and breeder, Jules La Rocque, gave to her mother, who in her day was queen of the ice at L'Original ...
— The Man From Glengarry - A Tale Of The Ottawa • Ralph Connor

... do otherwise in these terrible circumstances?" she queried, with a strange contraction of ...
— The Sign of Silence • William Le Queux

... protection of the intrenchments, where, from the beginning of the combat, had been lying plenty of idle infantry, some of which at least, it seemed plain to me, ought to have been thrown into the fight. This action was the last one of consequence around Sedan, for, though with the contraction of the German lines their batteries kept cannonading more or less, and the rattle of musketry continued to be heard here and there, yet the hard fighting of the day practically ended on the ...
— The Memoirs of General P. H. Sheridan, Complete • General Philip Henry Sheridan

... nodded, then smiled, a slight curling of his lip, a slight contraction of the skin round ...
— Treasure and Trouble Therewith - A Tale of California • Geraldine Bonner

... one-half of which have stood well, while the remainder have either broken, split, or suffered considerable abrasion in wear; but in many instances the mechanical test of tensile strength, elongation, and contraction, and the figures of quality (Wohler's sum and Tetmajer's coefficient) deduced from these have varied very considerably for the results obtained ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885 • Various

... with the place, the character of the god is a general and not a special one. The full form of his name appears to have been Ner-unu-gal, of which Nergal, furnished by the Old Testament passage referred to, would then be a contraction or a somewhat corrupt form. The three elements composing his name signify "the mighty one of the great dwelling-place," but it is, again, an open question whether this is a mere play upon the character ...
— The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria • Morris Jastrow

... mother's "eccentric behaviour," her "fits of phrenzy," her "caprices," "passions," and so forth; and there is convincing proof—see Life, pp. 28, 306; Letters, 1898, ii. 122 (incident at Bellingham's execution); Letters, 1901, vi. 179 (Le Diable Boiteux)—that he regarded the contraction of the muscles of his legs as a more or less repulsive deformity. And yet, to quote one of a hundred testimonies,—"with regard to Lord Byron's features, Mr. Mathews observed, that he was the only man he ever contemplated, to whom he felt ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

... child, at first taking pupils, but when the High School was set up, changing these into boarders; while Mrs. Egremont went as daily governess to the children of a family of somewhat higher pretensions. Little Ursula, or Nuttie, as she was called, according to the local contraction, was like the child of all the party, and after climbing up through the High School to the last form, hoped, after passing the Cambridge examination, to become a teacher ...
— Nuttie's Father • Charlotte M. Yonge

... published, and brother to the popular authoress, Mrs. Trollope. And the sixth and last house in the row, on the west side of which is Walnut-tree Walk, leading to Earl's Court and Kensington, is distinguished by the name of Burleigh House, which, some one humorously observed, {121} might possibly be a contraction of "hurley burley," the house being a ladies' school, and the unceasing work of education, on the main Fulham Road, appearing here for the first time to terminate. [Picture: Burleigh House (1844)] The following entry, however, in the parish register of Kensington, respecting ...
— A Walk from London to Fulham • Thomas Crofton Croker

... the vulgar notion of life—that it consists in the abundance of the things which one possesses, in the ability to live without exertion, amid plenty of good cheer. Suppose him to love his neighbor as himself. His charity must partake of the contraction and grossness of his self-love. Suppose another to prize duly intellectual riches. To him the discovery of a new principle in the physical, intellectual, or moral world, brings a joy unsurpassed by the merchant's, on the return of his heavily ...
— The Growth of Thought - As Affecting the Progress of Society • William Withington

... as much as possible, to avoid being alarmed, as he will reflect, that as the body is lighter than water, a very little exertion in it will keep his body afloat. Of course his first thoughts will be towards the shore, but he must not forget, that the cramp being only a muscular contraction, may be thrown off by proper muscular exertion. He must strike out the limb violently, and bringing the toes towards the shin-bone, thrust his feet out, which will probably restore the muscles to their proper exercise; but if the cramp still continue, ...
— The Book of Sports: - Containing Out-door Sports, Amusements and Recreations, - Including Gymnastics, Gardening & Carpentering • William Martin

... thereby, and the capacity of the chest greatly increased. Do not raise the shoulders or the upper part of the chest alone when you breathe. Breathe as a healthy child breathes, by the expansion and contraction of abdominal and intercostal muscles. Such breathing will improve the health, and be of great assistance in continuous reading or speaking. Great care is necessary in converting the breath into voice. Do not waste breath; use it economically, or hoarseness will follow. Much practice ...
— The Canadian Elocutionist • Anna Kelsey Howard

... is the most important factor toward counteracting these unnatural conditions. Air, bathing, and diet aid, but we must have exercise in order to get the energetic contraction of the larger muscles of the body which goes so far toward regulating the physical tone. We must have what are called compensatory exercises, beginning as far down as the grammar-schools and continuing right ...
— Keeping Fit All the Way • Walter Camp

... The French Canadians often contract "bonne" and "bon" in this way. "Bo Tantibba" is contraction for "Bonne ...
— Hetty's Strange History • Anonymous

... sense of his instrument than any other composer, and Pachmann plays Chopin with an infallible sense of what Chopin meant to express in his mind. He seems to touch the notes with a kind of agony of delight; his face twitches with the actual muscular contraction of the fingers as they suspend themselves in the very act of touch. I am told that Pachmann plays Chopin in a morbid way. Well, Chopin was morbid; there are fevers and cold sweats in his music; it is not healthy music, and it is not to be interpreted in a robust way. It must be played, ...
— Plays, Acting and Music - A Book Of Theory • Arthur Symons

... agony. Alongside the baskets lay the bigger fish, broad-tailed sea-bass, their circular jaws wide open, showing the white, round tongues and the dark throats, while their bodies were stretched backward, taut in the contraction of death; and flat, enormously wide skates, their fins spread out on the ground like kites of brown cloth, slimy and ...
— Mayflower (Flor de mayo) • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... the fundamental condition of locomotion, has not only been discovered to exist far more widely among plants than was formerly imagined; but, in plants, the act of contraction has been found to be accompanied, as Dr. Burdon Sanderson's interesting investigations have shown, by a disturbance of the electrical state of the contractile substance, comparable to that which was found by Du Bois Reymond to be a concomitant of the activity of ordinary muscle ...
— Discourses - Biological and Geological Essays • Thomas H. Huxley

... explain this fact, however, we have to make use of abstractions. Bergson describes the fact known directly by sensible perception as a contraction of a period of the duration of matter in which the "past" states of matter are preserved along with the "present" and form a single whole with it. It is memory which makes this difference between matter and the actual facts by preserving "past" matter and combining ...
— The Misuse of Mind • Karin Stephen

... "Some contraction of the hollows under the lake's surface," answered Jack. "Maybe a cave would get filled with water, then some rocks would fill the cave up, causing the water to ...
— Jack North's Treasure Hunt - Daring Adventures in South America • Roy Rockwood

... the subject, but should be glad to hear other opinions; so I again put the question to your correspondents. In conclusion I would observe to "GASTROS" that they must be very late MSS. indeed in which such a contraction as pisan for partisan can be found. If you have room, and think it worth while, I will from time to time send you some corrections of the more ...
— Notes and Queries 1850.02.23 • Various

... in the question, and around her gentle blue eyes appeared a group of little lines, brought out by the nervous contraction of her forehead. Was it the wan, smoky light of the dusk?—Susan wondered, or was Virginia really beginning to ...
— Virginia • Ellen Glasgow

... stood ready, a tightening of the muscles of the arm that held the club, a lowering of the brows. On the part of the demon, a spasmodic contraction. Again ...
— The Sign of the Spider • Bertram Mitford

... after the process had been accomplished; as if an anticipatory preparation for the liquid state were going on previous to the completion of the change. Performing the experiment again at 32 deg. C. (90 deg. Fahr.), the anticipatory preparation and the after-continuation of the contraction were more marked, and, instead of a separate and distinct liquid, wavy and mobile striae were perceived on the sides of the vessel as the only signs of a change of state which had not yet been effected. At temperatures above 32 deg. C. (90 deg. Fahr.), there were neither striae nor liquefaction, ...
— Scientific American Supplement, Vol. XIX, No. 470, Jan. 3, 1885 • Various

... a disordered life, out of adjustment with the universal will of God; it is concentration upon self and self-ends; the contraction of love; the shrinking of inward resources; the formation of a spirit of hate, the creation of an inward nature that hates what God loves. Hell is the inner condition inherently attaching to the kind of life that displays and exhibits the spirit ...
— Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries • Rufus M. Jones

... the fjord beneath us. Nikolai stopped and carefully rubbed down the mare once more. As our path sloped downward, I felt a pressure, a contraction in my chest; it was the sea air. Nikolai asked me what was the matter, ...
— Look Back on Happiness • Knut Hamsun

... you up and down in cheap appraisal? Pop Smith is dead, who sold his photograph to Freshmen, but has he no successor? How about the old fellow who sold hot chestnuts at football games—"a nickel a bush"—a rare contraction meant to denote a bushel—in reality fifteen nuts and fifteen worms. Does George Felsburg still play the overture at Poli's, reading his newspaper the while, and do comic actors still jest with ...
— Chimney-Pot Papers • Charles S. Brooks

... deceiving their guest as to the strength of the liquor he had drunk. They went into the Painting Room, and found Mr. Blyth there, pale and penitent, but manfully preparing to varnish The Golden Age, with a very trembling hand, and a very headachy contraction of the eyebrows. ...
— Hide and Seek • Wilkie Collins

... slight lack of fluency. The last line of the third stanza contains a redundant syllable, a defect which might be corrected by the removal of the article before the word "louder", or by the poetical contraction of "sympathy" into "symp'thy". The third line of the fourth stanza possesses only four feet. This may be an intentional shortening to give rhetorical effect, yet it mars none the less ...
— Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 • Howard Phillips Lovecraft

... Another contraction of pain passed over his face as he remembered that she had been more affectionate than she had ever been before. The fire of her kisses still burnt upon his lips. He had spent a night of almost sleepless ecstasy because he had been certain for the first time that the passion which ...
— The Magician • Somerset Maugham

... had the envelopes in his hands I saw him bend his brows, and I had a momentary hope that I had shattered the mask that hid his true face, that face in which the inner workings of the soul are reflected. The bent brow was, however, merely a contraction of the muscles of the eye, caused by regarding an object closely, and it cleared immediately. He handed me back the letters without any question ...
— Stories of Modern French Novels • Julian Hawthorne

... force of simple alternate contraction and relaxation in the muscles, which, acting through joints, tendons, and levers, does ...
— The Easiest Way in Housekeeping and Cooking - Adapted to Domestic Use or Study in Classes • Helen Campbell

... regard to space-distortion. The Theory of Relativity enforces the conclusion that from the standpoint of our conventions in regard to these matters, all bodies involved in transportation undergo a contraction in the direction of that transportation, while their dimensions perpendicular to the transportation remain invariable. This contraction is the same for all bodies. For bodies of low velocity, like the earth, this distortion would be almost immeasurably slight; but great or little, no ...
— Four-Dimensional Vistas • Claude Fayette Bragdon

... deceived,' replied the other. 'I am endowed with the acutest hearing, and I can swear that not a mouse has rustled.' Yet the pallor and contraction of his features were in total discord with ...
— The Dynamiter • Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny van de Grift Stevenson

... the movements of a mushroom-headed or conical valve at the mouth of a conical carbide vessel; such movements occurring in sympathy with the alterations in level of the water in the decomposing chamber, which is essentially a small displacement holder also, or being produced by the contraction of a flexible chamber through which the gas passes on its way to the burner. So far as it is safe to speak definitely on a matter of this kind, the carbide-feed device appears to work satisfactorily in a stationary (e.g., table) lamp; but it ...
— Acetylene, The Principles Of Its Generation And Use • F. H. Leeds and W. J. Atkinson Butterfield

... handily converted the chair into a couch, arranging the dress and coverings with the familiarity of long use, and by no means shocked by the contraction and helplessness of the lower limbs, to which she had been so much accustomed all her life that it never even occurred to her to pity Aunt Ermine, who never treated herself as an object of compassion. ...
— The Clever Woman of the Family • Charlotte M. Yonge

... the ice move. There have been other forces set in motion as well as that of the ice. The fierce attacks of the storms, the insidious forces of frost, of expansion and contraction, of lightning, etc., have shattered and loosened vast masses of the mountain summits. Some of these have weathered into toppling masses, which required only a heavy wind or slight contractions to send them from their uncertain ...
— The Lake of the Sky • George Wharton James

... or contraction of humour in the breast is over, she may be nourished more plentifully with the broth of capons, pullets, pigeons, mutton, veal, etc., which must not be until after eight days from the time of delivery; at which time the womb, unless some ...
— The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher • Anonymous

... grieve to say that these irreverent brethren had long ago fallen into the scandalous habit of calling their teacher by a familiar contraction of his proper name, nor had the master rebuked them). "Hurrah, Jeff! we were afraid ...
— A Dog with a Bad Name • Talbot Baines Reed

... be taken to stand for evil. It is hardly necessary to suspect a Scotch printer; evil is often used as a monosyllable, and eale may have been a pronunciation of it half-way towards ill, which is its contraction.] ...
— The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - A Study with the Text of the Folio of 1623 • George MacDonald

... beheld its departure are said to have remarked that the service of the dead ought to be performed for the adventurers. They reached Rio de Janeiro after a prosperous voyage, and remained there a fortnight, during which time the Adelantado, being crippled by a contraction of the sinews, appointed Juan Osorio to command in his stead. Having made this arrangement they proceeded to their place of destination, anchored at Isle St. Gabriel within the Plata, and then on its southern shore ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 9 • Various

... of no very comprehensive search may venture to say that he has heard all this before; but it was never till now recommended by such a blaze of embellishment, or such sweetness of melody. The vigorous contraction of some thoughts, the luxuriant amplification of others, the incidental illustrations, and sometimes the dignity, sometimes the softness of the verses, enchain philosophy, suspend criticism, and oppress judgment ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes - Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II • Samuel Johnson

... or Nenna bella is the pet phrase used by the Neapolitan young man in addressing his sweetheart. Nenna has nothing to do with Nina, which is a contraction of Antonia.] ...
— Prince Fortunatus • William Black

... is greatly modified by his emotions. The man of few emotions has few vocal vibrations; hence his monotonous voice. The man whose emotions are habitually cruel, has a harsh, hard muscular texture through contraction of the muscles; hence the hard voice. It is plain that the natural voice is an index to the character. If the imagination and soul are cultivated, the voice will gain in richness and fulness. If, in reading ...
— The Ontario High School Reader • A.E. Marty

... perceptions sharpened and quickened, she saw that her father had indeed changed very greatly; he had grown much thinner; his complexion had an unnatural, livid aspect; his old serene, frank look was absent, and a noticeable contraction in the pupils of his eyes gave an odd, ...
— Without a Home • E. P. Roe

... understood this to mean the worst, and burst away to sit cowering in suspense over his fire. Miss Fennimore then offered Bertha a morsel of roll dipped in port wine, but fasting and agitation had really produced a contraction of the muscles of the throat, and the attempt failed. Bertha was dreadfully terrified, and Phoebe could hardly control herself, but she was the only person unbanished by Miss Fennimore. Even Robert's distress became too visible for the absolute calm by ...
— Hopes and Fears - scenes from the life of a spinster • Charlotte M. Yonge

... used when the word, though contracted in the middle, retains its original pronunciation; as "Dr." or "Mr." But it is used where the contraction is at the end of the ...
— "Stops" - Or How to Punctuate. A Practical Handbook for Writers and Students • Paul Allardyce

... he may make them a focus for his dazed contemplation. When the mind takes to generalities it finds the same fascination in Being or in the Absolute, something it needs no art to discover. The more indeterminate, immediate, and unutterable the idol is, the better it induces panic self-contraction and a reduction of all discourse to the infinite intensity of zero. When idolaters pass from trying to evoke the Absolutely Existent to apostrophising the sun or an ithyphallic bull they have made an immense progress in art and religion, for now their idols represent ...
— The Life of Reason • George Santayana

... basis which Burke finds for the ideas of the imagination. [Footnote: Burke traces our ideas of the sublime to the sense of physical pain; our ideas of the beautiful to that of physical pleasure; identifying the former with a contraction or tension, and the latter with a relaxation of the muscles. Against this theory two main objections may be urged: (1) As, on Burke's own showing, the objects of the imagination, at least as far as poetry is concerned, are, and must be, presented first to the mind, it ...
— English literary criticism • Various

... and will probably supplant the old favorite "bonny." "Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny bride."—HAMILTON. 7. "Young'un," youth, young man. "A YOUTH to fortune and to fame unknown."—GRAY. 8. "Gov'nor," or "guv'nor," a contraction of "governor," a father. It will, no doubt, soon supersede sire, which is at present the poetical equivalent for the name of the author of one's existence. See all the poets, passim. 9. "Said as how he'd never fight," the thing was out of the question; a metaphorical phrase, though certainly, ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton

... moving toward the center, in order to get out of the basin, invariably set up a rotary motion. As the particles of this diffused nebula began to gather together they, too, gave to the mass a rotary movement. This grew more and more rapid, with greater contraction, until the particles on the outer edge of the rotating mass had just so much speed that the least bit more would make them tend to fly off as mud would fly from a revolving wheel. When this point was reached there was a balance of forces which made the outermost portion remain as a ring ...
— The Meaning of Evolution • Samuel Christian Schmucker

... There was the slightest contraction of Mr. Blunt's facial muscles. Very slight; but I, staring at the narrator after the manner of all simple souls, noticed it; the twitch of a pain which surely must have been mental. There was also a suggestion of effort before he went on: "I suppose ...
— The Arrow of Gold - a story between two notes • Joseph Conrad

... a constant embarrassment to the Government and a safe balance in the Treasury. Therefore I believe it necessary to devise a system which, without diminishing the circulating medium or offering a premium for its contraction, will present a remedy for those arrangements which, temporary in their nature, might well in the years of our prosperity have been displaced by wiser provisions. With adequate revenue secured, but not until then, we can enter upon such changes in our fiscal laws ...
— Messages and Papers of William McKinley V.2. • William McKinley

... of newer tapestry. Could it be that it moved? It could be only the effect of the wavering shadows. And yet I could not convince myself that it did not move. It did move. It came forward. One side of it did certainly come forward. A kind of universal cramp seized me—a contraction of every fibre of my body. The patch opened like a door—wider and wider; and from behind came a great helmet peeping. I was all one terror, but my nerves held out so far that I lay like a watching dog—watching for what horror would come next. The door opened wider, a mailed hand ...
— Wilfrid Cumbermede • George MacDonald

... marked, than in the year 1813. The eyelids were thinned, the lips pinched, the corners of the mouth drawn down, the cheek bones too prominent, and the neck visibly shrunken, which exaggerated the prominence of the chin and larynx. But the eyelids were closed without contraction, and the sockets much less hollow than one could have expected; the mouth was not at all distorted, like the mouth of a corpse; the skin was slightly wrinkled, but had not changed color,—it had only become a little more ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner

... on. It seemed that in a moment he must land the fatal blow upon his apparently half-stupefied opponent. He sought finally to deliver this blow, but the effort was near to proving his ruin. Just as he swung forward, the giant, with a sudden contraction of all his vast frame, sprang out and brought down his war axe in a sheer downward blow at half-arm's length. White Calf with lightning speed changed his own attack into defence, sweeping up his weapon to defend his head. On the instant his arm was beaten down. It fell helpless at his side, the ...
— The Girl at the Halfway House • Emerson Hough

... rocks before he could utter a cry, and sending the scalping knife he was carrying between his teeth flying with the shock from his battered jaw. Boyle seized it—his knee still in the man's back—but the prostrate body never moved beyond a slight contraction of the lower limbs. The shock had broken the Indian's neck. He turned the inert man on his back—the head hung loosely on the side. But in that brief instant Boyle had recognized the "friendly" Indian of the station to whom he had ...
— Trent's Trust and Other Stories • Bret Harte

... his hat with his handkerchief, and staring at Hendon with a contraction, half smile, half grin, upon ...
— The Bag of Diamonds • George Manville Fenn

... away involuntarily with a nervous contraction of her whole body. For that moment she ...
— The Keeper of the Door • Ethel M. Dell

... greenbacks thus issued in substitution for the surrendered National bank currency, as fast as the exchange of the one for the other might be made. This saving of interest alone would strengthen the government for a return to the gold standard, which could be effected without any contraction of the volume of paper money, except to the extent of the coin thrown into circulation: and the resumption of specie payments by the Treasury—greenbacks to be convertible into coin only at the Treasury and sub-treasuries—would ...
— Lippincott's Magazine. Vol. XII, No. 33. December, 1873. • Various

... made bend, and also shows how it comes together at the throat, X, and back, E; L is the enlarged section of X E, looking at the pipe endways. The cause of this contraction is pulling the bend too quickly, and too much at a time, without dressing in the sides at B B as follows: After you have pulled the pipe round until it just begins to flatten, take a soft dresser, or a piece of soft wood, and a hammer, and turn the pipe on its side as at Fig. 37; then strike ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 315, January 14, 1882 • Various

... Getting and Spreading Typhoid Fever.—Typhoid fever is a communicable disease, but, if certain precautions are taken, its contraction and spread can almost ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV. (of IV.) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • Grant Hague

... turning round to apologize found himself face to face with his wife! To do him justice he was not the least taken aback—anger rather than confusion seemed to be his dominant feeling; and although he tried to smother a rising oath in a laugh, or rather a grin, it was such a muscular contraction of the mouth as does not give me the idea of ...
— Kate Coventry - An Autobiography • G. J. Whyte-Melville

... during the summer, and, after changing his Secretary of the Treasury until he got one who would obey, President Jackson dealt his great blow. On September 26 Mr. Taney signed the order removing the deposits of the government from the Bank of the United States. The result was an immediate contraction of loans, commercial distress, ...
— Daniel Webster • Henry Cabot Lodge

... this separateness in preparation for the tension of new flight and its perils. Everything, in short, in wild nature has its corresponding note in our own humanity,—the sweating of the corn, the moulting of the bird, the contraction of the earth by frost, all have a kindred season or experience ...
— People of the Whirlpool • Mabel Osgood Wright

... and what does it do? The name is a contraction of Societe Internationale Forestiere & Miniere du Congo. In the Congo, where companies have long titles, it is the fashion to reduce them to the dimensions of a cable code-word. Thus the high-sounding Compagnie Industrielle pour les Transports et Commerce au Stanley Pool is mercifully ...
— An African Adventure • Isaac F. Marcosson

... before her fire, gazing far, smiling at her thoughts, into the glowing coals, had never left her. But there was a slight difference to be noted. She could not think of Ingram—the past, the present, or any future Ingram—without contraction of the brows. Smooth-browed she ...
— Rest Harrow - A Comedy of Resolution • Maurice Hewlett

... with periods of apparent recovery. On the other hand, the disease is said to be confined to negroes; but that probably means only that negroes alone have hitherto been exposed to the conditions that produce it. A more important fact is that, as far as I know, extreme contraction of the pupils is not a symptom of sleeping sickness. To sum up, the probabilities are against sleeping sickness, but with our insufficient knowledge, we cannot definitely ...
— The Mystery of 31 New Inn • R. Austin Freeman

... contracts on the average to the amount of some inches each thousand years. For the reason that almost all this heat goes from the depths of the earth, the cool outer portion losing no considerable part of it, the contraction that is brought about affects the interior portions of the sphere alone. The inner mass constantly shrinking as it loses heat, the outer, cold part is by its weight forced to settle down, and can only accomplish this result by wrinkling. An analogous action may be seen where an apple or ...
— Outlines of the Earth's History - A Popular Study in Physiography • Nathaniel Southgate Shaler

... Press. The love of family comes, in the order of growth, before the love of country; and the love of country precedes the love of all mankind. "First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear," is the great law of love in the soul as of corn in the soil. Besides this contraction of the affections, there was also manifest in his first journalistic venture a deficiency in the organ of vision, a failure to see into things and their relations. What he saw he reported faithfully, suppressing nothing, adding nothing. But the objects which passed ...
— William Lloyd Garrison - The Abolitionist • Archibald H. Grimke

... fingers, while in a fortissimo one it is grasped tightly in the closed fist, the tension of the muscles being symbolic of the excitement expressed in the music at that point. All muscles must be relaxed unless a contraction occurs because of the conductor's response to emotional tension in the music. The wrist should be loose and flexible, and the entire beat so full of grace that the attention of the audience is never for an instant distracted ...
— Essentials in Conducting • Karl Wilson Gehrkens

... are agitated and tormented by convulsions. These convulsions are remarkable for their number, duration, and force, and have been known to persist for more than three hours. They are characterized by involuntary, jerking movements in all the limbs, and in the whole body, by contraction of the throat, by twitchings in the hypochondriac and epigastric regions, by dimness and rolling of the eyes, by piercing cries, tears, hiccough, and immoderate laughter. They are preceded or followed ...
— Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing • George Barton Cutten

... not afraid to die; don't think that," he remonstrated wearily. "If there is a Judgment, it has hit me as hard as it can already. There can't be any hell worse than that I've gone through. Here I am talking about hell," he continued, with a pained contraction of the muscles about his mouth—a stillborn, malformed smile—"as if I believed in one! I've got way through all my beliefs, you know. I tell ...
— The Damnation of Theron Ware • Harold Frederic

... bony socket of the eye; yet sufficient room is left for all the force that can be required. In some dogs, either for purposes of offence or defence, or the more effectual grasping of the prey, a sudden violent exertion of muscular power, and a consequent contraction of the temporal muscle, are requisite, but for which the imperfect socket of the orbit does not seem to afford sufficient scope and room. There is an admirable provision for this in the removal of a certain portion of the orbital process of the frontal bone on the outer and upper part of ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

... the mould was broken up, leaving the plaster-cast whole. Thus one touching incident in the terrible tragedy of eighteen centuries ago has been preserved for the admiration and respect of posterity. The arms and legs of the child showed a contraction and emaciation which could only result from illness. Of the mother only the right arm was preserved; she fell upon the ashes, and the remaining portion of her body was consumed. But the right hand still clasped the legs of the child; on her arm ...
— How to Succeed - or, Stepping-Stones to Fame and Fortune • Orison Swett Marden

... the whole; Dak wicha them, incorporated objective. Iowa wi; Dak pi plural suffix seems to be a contraction of this base. ...
— The Dakotan Languages, and Their Relations to Other Languages • Andrew Woods Williamson

... considerate and forbearing, and they travelled slowly and talked little. At first Faxon had felt a great shrinking from whatever touched on familiar things. He seldom looked at a newspaper, he never opened a letter without a moment's contraction of the heart. It was not that he had any special cause for apprehension, but merely that a great trail of darkness lay on everything. He had looked too deep down into the abyss. ... But little by little health and energy returned to him, and with them the common promptings ...
— Short Stories for English Courses • Various (Rosa M. R. Mikels ed.)

... overborrowing from the central bank, and slipping on its schedule for privatization and administrative reform. The rebound of oil prices in 1999-2000 helped growth, but drops in production hampered Gabon from fully realizing potential gains. An expected decline in oil output may lead to contraction ...
— The 2001 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... across each other at right angles, which will greatly facilitate the construction of the combs, and support them when filled with honey. A good bee-hive ought to be so planned as to be capable of enlargement or contraction, according to the number of the swarm; to admit of being opened without disturbing the bees, either for the purpose of cleaning it, of freeing it from noxious insects, or for the admission of a stock of provision for the winter. It should also ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton

... regulates the steam pressure, leaving the man in charge nothing to do but to look after the water, and even that could be accomplished if one cared to trust to such a volatile water-tender. Boilers will last longer, and there will be fewer explosions from unequal expansion and contraction, due from cold draughts of air being let ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 520, December 19, 1885 • Various

... Tae-keih, or Grand Extreme. This is absolutely immaterial, and the basis of the order of the universe. From this ultimate principle, operating from all eternity, come all animate and inanimate nature. It operates in a twofold way, by expansion and contraction, or by ceaseless active and passive pulsations. The active expansive pulsation is called Yang, the passive intensive pulsation is Yin, and the two may be called the Positive and Negative Essences of all things. When the active expansive phase of the process has reached ...
— Ten Great Religions - An Essay in Comparative Theology • James Freeman Clarke

... Scottish contraction of the name had been Effie;" replied the stranger, in a tone which went to Jeanie's heart; for in that single word there was more of her sister—more of lang syne ideas—than in all the reminiscences which her own heart had anticipated, or the features ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... taken by the authorities against the spread of disease in camp. All the prisoners are vaccinated against smallpox, and are immunised against typhoid and cholera. Certain simple rules against the contraction of disease are posted throughout the camps, and the men are impressed with the importance of personal cleanliness. Baths are obligatory, the facilities affording each man a weekly bath under ...
— The Better Germany in War Time - Being some Facts towards Fellowship • Harold Picton

... strong soal leather; he then takes off the hair by means of clear lime-water; he does not make them undergo the operation of swelling, but puts them immediately into weak solutions of tan, the strength of which he gradually increases, but without ever bringing it to the degree of contraction, which he gives it when it is to be used in tanning thick leather; two, three, or four days, are enough for tanning the thinner kind of leather. Leather which is not sufficiently impregnated with the tanning principle, is generally known by a white ...
— The American Practical Brewer and Tanner • Joseph Coppinger

... is," apologised Mr. Jope, observing a slight contraction of the Parson's nostril. "I reckoned 'twould tauten him a bit for what's ahead. . . . Well, as I was sayin', it happened very curiously. This day fortnight we were beatin' up an' across the Bay o' Biscay, after a four months' to-an'-fro game ...
— News from the Duchy • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... structure between head and thorax of such insects as have the head free: any contraction of the head at its juncture with ...
— Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology • John. B. Smith

... [Greek: bous epi glosse].[1] I get half bribed to silence by the very pleasure of fancying. But if it could be possible that you should mean to say you would show me.... Can it be? or am I reading this 'Attic contraction' quite the wrong way? You see I am afraid of the difference between flattering myself and being flattered; the fatal difference. And now will you understand that I should be too overjoyed to have revelations from the 'Portfolio,' ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett

... consonant, can never represent the Sanskrit ase. With regard to infinitives like fac-se, dic-se, I do not venture to decide whether they are primitive forms, or contracted, though fac-se could hardly be called a contraction of fecisse. The 2d pers. sing. of the imperative of the 1st aorist middle, lusai, is identical with the infinitive in form, and the transition of meaning from the infinitive to the imperative is well known in Greek ...
— Chips from a German Workshop - Volume IV - Essays chiefly on the Science of Language • Max Muller

... construction equipment, tractors, agricultural machinery, and some defense items. The breakup of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse in demand for Kazakhstan's traditional heavy industry products resulted in a short-term contraction of the economy, with the steepest annual decline occurring in 1994. In 1995-97, the pace of the government program of economic reform and privatization quickened, resulting in a substantial shifting of assets into ...
— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States

... European high-road, where he has travelled with many acquaintances. With whom is he making the tour now?—Mr. Hirsch is acting as courier to Mr. and Mrs. Horace Milliken. They have not been married many months, and they are travelling, Hirsch says, with a contraction of his bushy eyebrows, with miladi, Mrs. Milliken's mamma. "And who is her ladyship?" Hirsch's brow contracts into deeper furrows. "It is Miladi Gigglebury," he says, "Mr. Didmarsh. Berhabs you know her." He scowls round at her, as she ...
— The Christmas Books • William Makepeace Thackeray

... the adjoining country, that about a week after the events narrated in the preceding chapter, King Edward reclined. His couch was softly and luxuriously cushioned, and not a little art had been expended in the endeavor to lighten his sufferings, and enable him to rest at ease. The repeated contraction of his countenance, however, betrayed how impotent was even luxury when brought in contact with disease. The richly-furred and wadded crimson velvet robe could not conceal the attenuation of his once peculiarly fine and noble form; his great length of limb, which had gained ...
— The Days of Bruce Vol 1 - A Story from Scottish History • Grace Aguilar

... attached to gas ranges. These devices do not merely measure the heat of an oven, but control it and keep the oven temperature constant. A "temperature wheel" (shown at B) is set for a desired temperature and the oven burner lighted. By the expansion or contraction of a sensitive copper tube placed in the top of the oven (shown at A) the gas valve (shown at C) is opened or closed. When the valve is opened the amount of gas burning is increased or decreased so that the temperature of the oven is kept constant, i.e. ...
— School and Home Cooking • Carlotta C. Greer

... off from the knee to the foot; both arms and several ribs were also broken. We went into one of the female wards, where sixteen broken legs were being successfully treated, and I could not but admire a very simple contrivance which remedies the contraction which often succeeds broken limbs, and produces permanent lameness. Two long straps of plaister were glued from above the knee to the ankle, and were then fixed to a wooden bar, with a screw and handle, so that the tension could be regulated at pleasure. The medical men, in remarking upon this, ...
— The Englishwoman in America • Isabella Lucy Bird

... letter was then handed to Barre, who read it. An individual who was present on the occasion described to me the impression which the reading of the letter produced on Napoleon. His countenance exhibited that violent contraction of the features which I have often remarked when his mind was disturbed. However, he did not lose his self-command, which indeed never forsook him when policy or vanity required that he should retain it; and when the reading of Beurnonville's ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

... glosses. Reference to the MS. enables us to isolate these. The sentence there runs thus: "Si ergo in isto loco mansissem non Ysseal .i. imus esset id est non paruus sed altus .i. magnus et honorabilis." Here id est occurs three times, once in full, and twice represented by the common contraction .i., which is universally used in MSS. of Irish origin for the introduction of a gloss. If we write the sentence as below, we shall see the significance of the different ways in which the expression is written, ...
— The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran - Translations Of Christian Literature. Series V. Lives Of - The Celtic Saints • Anonymous

... on the top of him. One quiver, one contraction of the claws (in poor Scroope's leg) and all was over. There it lay as though it were asleep, ...
— Allan and the Holy Flower • H. Rider Haggard

... is probably a contraction of "raparee," and was the name given to the tokens that passed current in Ireland for copper coins of small value. Generally it referred to debased coins; hence it may be allied to "raparee," who might be considered as a debased citizen. The raparees were so called from the rapary or half-pike ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. VI; The Drapier's Letters • Jonathan Swift

... quaintly that Lynette laughed, though there was a pained contraction between the delicate eyebrows and a vexed and sorrowful shadow on ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves

... said, at the first they arose in contact with the objects; they imitated them by the grimaces of mouth and nose which accompanied their sound, by the roughness, smoothness, length, or shortness of this sound, by the rattle or whistle of the throat, by the inflation or contraction of the chest. ...
— The Psychology of Beauty • Ethel D. Puffer

... hot body cooling off, a very few years would suffice for it to cool off so far that its surface would become solid and very soon cold. In recent years, the theory universally accepted has been that the supply of heat is kept up by the continual contraction of the sun, by mutual gravitation of its parts as it cools off. This theory has the advantage of enabling us to calculate, with some approximation to exactness, at what rate the sun must be contracting in order to keep up the supply of heat which it radiates. On this theory, ...
— Side-lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular Science • Simon Newcomb

... stood still a moment, and Sir Wilfrid caught a sudden contraction of the brow. "That, of course, was just ...
— Lady Rose's Daughter • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... (h) Diseases of the kidneys: change of structure into fatty or waxy-like condition and other changes leading to dropsy. (i) Diseases of the muscles: fatty changes in the muscles, by which they lose their power for proper active contraction. (j) Diseases of the membranes of the body: thickening and loss of elasticity, by which the parts wrapped up in the membrane are impaired for use, and premature decay ...
— Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why - What Medical Writers Say • Martha M. Allen

... would be to enlarge the diameter of a comet in proportion to its proximity. Now, the force of the radial stream, as we have shown, is as the 2.5th power of the distances inversely. If this alternate contraction and expansion be due to the action of this force, there ought to be an approximate correspondence of the law of the effect with the law of the cause. Arago, in speaking of the comet of 1829, states, "that between the 28th of October and the 24th of December, the volume of the comet ...
— Outlines of a Mechanical Theory of Storms - Containing the True Law of Lunar Influence • T. Bassnett

... is hollow, and its cavity is separated from the body cavity by a septum or proboscis sheath. Traversing the cavity of the proboscis are muscle-strands inserted into the tip of the proboscis at one end and into the septum at the other. Their contraction causes the proboscis to be invaginated into its cavity (fig. 2). But the whole proboscis apparatus can also be, at least partially, withdrawn into the body cavity, and this is effected by two retractor muscles which run from ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... walked back a few paces, stopped again; she inclined her head, with those thoughtful eyes which look attentive yet see nothing.... Her lowered eyelids had that vague contraction which suggests a tear checked in its course, or a thought suppressed.... Her face, which might inspire adoration, seemed meditative, like portraits of the Virgin.—Toilers ...
— What Great Men Have Said About Women - Ten Cent Pocket Series No. 77 • Various

... which had been the scene of Erica's exploit, Rolf laid aside his rod, with the bright hook that herrings so much admire, to guide his canoe through the currents caused by the approach of the rocks, and contraction of the passage; and he then wished he had brought Erica with him, so lovely was the scene. Every crevice of the rocks, even where there seemed to be no soil, was tufted with bushes, every twig of which was bursting into the greenest leaf, while, here and there, a clump of dark pines overhung ...
— Feats on the Fiord - The third book in "The Playfellow" • Harriet Martineau

... delayed by an abnormal contraction of his trachea, the same being induced by the old man's right hand, while his left seized the unhappy Thomas by his waist-belt, and a second later the dead shot of Blugsey's was tossed into the middle of the floor, somewhat as a sheaf of oats is tossed ...
— Romance of California Life • John Habberton



Words linked to "Contraction" :   diminution, reduction, Braxton-Hicks contraction, physiology, decrease, word, muscular contraction, step-down, vaginismus, coarctation, false labor, contracture, shrinking, shrinkage, tetanus, expansion, muscle contraction, constriction, compression, shortening, contract



Copyright © 2024 Free Translator.org