# contain
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French contenir, from Latin continēre (“to hold or keep together, comprise, contain”), combined form of con- (“together”) + teneō (“to hold”).

### Pronunciation

* enPR: kən-tānʹ, IPA: /kənˈteɪn/
* Audio (Canada):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪn
* Hyphenation: con‧tain

### Verb

contain (third-person singular simple present contains, present participle containing, simple past and past participle contained)
* (transitive) To hold inside.
    The brown box contains three stacks of books.
** 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
** 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].
* (transitive) To include as a part.
    Most of the meals they offer contain meat.
** 2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884:Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.
* (transitive) To put constraints upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.
    I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself!
** c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act INDUCTION, scene i]:Fear not, my lord: we can contain ourselves.
** 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:[The king's] only Person is oftentimes instead of an Army, to contain the unruly People from a thousand evil Occasions.
** 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16:Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.
** 1988, Lee Mavers, “There She Goes”, in Sixpence None the Richer‎, performed by Sixpence None the Richer, published 1997:There she goes / There she goes again / Racing through my brain / And I just can't contain / This feeling that remains
* (mathematics, of a set etc., transitive) To have as an element or subset.
    A group contains a unique inverse for each of its elements.
    If that subgraph contains the vertex in question then it must be spanning.
* (obsolete, intransitive) To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Bible Corinthians/#8 1 Corinthians:8–9:But if they cannot contain, let them marry.

#### Usage notes

* This is generally a stative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. See Category:English stative verbs

#### Synonyms

* (hold inside): enclose, inhold
* (include as part): comprise, embody, incorporate, inhold
* (limit by restraint): control, curb, repress, restrain, restrict, stifle; See also Thesaurus:curb

#### Antonyms

* (antonym(s) of “include as part”): exclude, omit
* (antonym(s) of “limit by restraint”): release, vent

#### Derived terms

* containee
* contain multitudes
* contain oneself
* melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cell
* self-contain

#### Related terms

* container
* containable
* containment
* content
* continence

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Further reading

* “contain”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “contain”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
* “contain”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* actinon, cantion, nanotic