tract
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɹækt/
homophone: tracked
rhymes: -ækt
Forms: form: tracts
Etymology: From Middle English tract, tracte, traht (“a treatise, exposition, commentary”), from Old English traht, tract (“a treatise, exposition, commentary, text, passage”); and also from Middle English tract, tracte (“an expanse of space or time”); both from Latin tractus (“a haul, drawing, a drawing out”), the perfect passive participle of trahō. Doublet of trait.
Senses: examples: text: an unexplored tract of sea
text: the deep tract of hell
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: a very high mountain joined to the mainland by a narrow tract of earth
ref: 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: small tracks of ground
ref: a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC:
text: Another place where, from the aesthetic point of view, a long tunnel would have been a real blessing, is East London as viewed from the carriage window on the old Great Eastern line. Despite a vast change from crowded slums to tracts of wasteland, due to its grim wartime experience, this approach still provides a shabby and unworthy introduction to the great capital.
ref: 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 703:
glosses: An area or expanse.
topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
glosses: A series of connected body organs, such as the digestive tract.
glosses: A small booklet such as a pamphlet, often for promotional or informational uses.
examples: text: The church clergy at that writ the best collection of tracts against popery that ever appeared.
ref: 1731, Jonathan Swift, The Presbyterians Plea of Merit:
glosses: A brief treatise or discourse on a subject.
glosses: A commentator's view or perspective on a subject.
examples: text: improved by tract of time
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: Nay, in another case of litigation, the unjust Standard bearer, for his own profit, asserting that the cause belonged not to St. Edmund’s Court, but to his in Lailand Hundred, involved us in travellings and innumerable expenses, vexing the servants of St. Edmund for a long tract of time […]
ref: 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. XIV, Henry of Essex”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):
glosses: Continued or protracted duration, length, extent
topics: Catholicism
Christianity
Roman-Catholicism
glosses: Part of the proper of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, used instead of the alleluia during Lenten or pre-Lenten seasons, in a Requiem Mass, and on a few other penitential occasions.
examples: text: in tract of speech
ref: 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech:
glosses: Continuity or extension of anything.
examples: text: The discovery of a man's self by the tracts of his countenance is a great weakness.
ref: 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Simulation and Dissimulation”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
glosses: Traits; features; lineaments.
examples: text: The Prophet Telemus […]mark'd the Tracts of every Bird that flew
ref: 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “Book 13”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: The footprint of a wild animal.
examples: text: Efface all tract of its traduction.
ref: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:
text: But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, / Leaving no tract behind.
ref: c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
glosses: Track; trace.
examples: text: The tract of every thing Would, by a good discourser, lose some life Which action's self was tongue to.
ref: 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
glosses: Treatment; exposition.
Synonyms: sense: series of connected body organs
word: system
Derived terms: biliary tract
census tract
digestive tract
gastrointestinal tract
GI tract
iliotibial tract
lower respiratory tract
pyramidal tract
respiratory tract
spinoreticular tract
Tractarian
tract home
tract house
tract housing
tract mansion
tract society
Trans-Karakoram Tract
upper respiratory tract
urinary tract
urinary tract infection
vocal tract
Related terms: abstract
attract
contract
detract
distract
extract
protract
retract
subtract
tractor
tractable
tractate
tractile
traction
tractive
trait
treat