CONTRACTING • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Contracting

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/kˈɑntræktɪŋ/ Listen

noun

contracting n. The act or process of acquiring an infectious disease; contraction; as, the contracting of a serious illness can be financially catastrophic.

Synonyms: catching.

verb

Contract v. t. (past & past part. contracted; pres. part. contracting)

1.

To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action. "In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties."

2.

To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit. "Thou didst contract and purse thy brow."

3.

To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease. "Each from each contract new strength and light." "Such behavior we contract by having much conversed with persons of high station."

4.

To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for. "We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and lague with the aforesaid queen." "Many persons... had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity... prohibited by law."

5.

To betroth; to affiance. "The truth is, she and I, long since contracted, Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us."

6.

(Gram.) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.

Synonyms: To shorten; abridge; epitomize; narrow; lessen; condense; reduce; confine; incur; assume.

Contract v. i.

1.

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. "Years contracting to a moment."

2.

To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail.

See images of 'Contracting'

Etymology of 'Contracting'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Contracting" Quotes from Famous Books

... death the hwun (Or spiritual soul) wanders away, ascending, and the pho (the root of the Tibetan word Pho-hat) descends and is changed into a ghostly shade (the shell). Dr. Medhurst thinks that "the Kwei Shans" (see "Theology of the Chinese," pp. 10-12) are "the expanding and contracting principles of human life!" "The Kwei Shans" are brought about by the dissolution of the human frame—and consist of the expanding and ascending Shan which rambles about in space, and of the contracted and shrivelled Kwei, ...

— Five Years Of Theosophy • Various

... fain to solace her earnest desire to bestow rich reward by settling a comfortable annuity on her and contracting for a snug, stanch house to be built here, with every appliance that could add to her comfort, and for this "Polly Hopkins" cared not at all; for her poor home had been full of joy with ...

— The Ordeal - A Mountain Romance of Tennessee • Charles Egbert Craddock

... parched by the heat of the sun, desert and bare as the shores of the sea, resembled at a distance, from the effect of the mirage, pools of stagnant water. These sandy shores, far from fixing the limits of the river, render them uncertain, by enlarging or contracting them alternately, according to the variable action of ...

— Equinoctial Regions of America V2 • Alexander von Humboldt

... said Berry, "that the idea of having a few chairs about in which you can sit continuously for ten minutes, not so much in comfort as without fear of contracting a bed-sore or necrosis of the coccyx, appeals to me. Compared with most of the 'sitzplatz' in this here villa, an ordinary church pew is almost voluptuous. The beastly things seem ...

— Jonah and Co. • Dornford Yates

... acquainted with her before your marriage; and as I know her to be a sorceress, she also is sensible that I have some of the same kind of knowledge as herself, since we both learnt it of the same mistress. We often meet at the baths, but as our tempers are different, I avoid all opportunities of contracting an intimacy with her, which is no difficult matter, as she does the same by me. I am not at all surprised at her wickedness: but what I have already done for you is not sufficient; I must complete what I have begun. It ...

— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 3 • Anon.

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