contract
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: kŏn'trăkt
ipa: /ˈkɒntɹækt/
ipa: /ˈkɑntɹækt/
enpr: kəntrăkt
ipa: /kənˈtɹækt/
rhymes: -ækt
enpr: kŏn'trăkt
ipa: /ˈkɒntɹækt/
ipa: /ˈkɑntɹækt/
Forms: form: contracts
form: contracting
form: contracted
form: contracted
Etymology: From Middle English, from Middle French contracter, from Latin contractum, past participle of contrahere (“to bring together, to bring about, to conclude a bargain”), from con- (“with, together”) + trahere (“to draw, to pull”). The verb developed after the noun, and originally meant only "draw together"; the sense "make a contract with" developed later.
Senses: examples: text: The snail’s body contracted into its shell.
text: to contract one’s sphere of action
text: We ſee in all things how deſuetude do's contract and narrow our faculties, ſo that we may apprehend only thoſe things wherein we are converſant.
ref: 1674, [Richard Allestree], “Of Boasting”, in The Government of the Tongue. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: At the Theater, →OCLC, page 168:
text: Mutual was the sudden transport; / Breathless questions followed fast, / Years contracting to a moment, / Each word greedier than the last; […]
ref: 1830, William Wordsworth, “The Armenian Lady’s Love”, in Yarrow Revisited, and Other Poems, London: […] Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, […]; and Edward Moxon, […], published 1835, →OCLC, stanza 18, page 102:
glosses: To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.
examples: text: The word “cannot” is often contracted into “can’t”.
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
examples: text: The company contracted with the council to build 200 new houses.
glosses: To make an agreement or contract; to covenant.
examples: text: We have just contracted new pest control services.
glosses: To enter into a contract with (someone or something).
examples: text: We have contracted an inviolable amitie, peace, and league with the aforesaid Queene.
ref: 1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC:
text: Many persons […] had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity […] prohibited by law.
ref: 1721, John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials:
glosses: To enter into (an agreement) with mutual obligations; to make (an arrangement).
examples: text: She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.
text: to contract a debt
text: Smit with the love of Siſter-arts we came, / And met congenial, mingling flame with flame; / Like friendly colours found our arts unite, / Each from each contract new ſtrength and light.
ref: 1717, Alexander Pope, “To Mr. Jervas, with Fresnoy’s Art of Painting, Translated by Mr. Dryden”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], →OCLC, page 391:
text: This talent of discretion, […] is no where so serviceable as to the clergy, to whose preferment nothing is so fatal as the character of wit, politeness in reading or manners, or that kind of behaviour, which we contract by having too much conversation with persons of high station and eminency; […]
ref: a. 1746 (date written), Jonathan Swift, “An Essay on the Fates of Clergymen”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume V, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 113:
text: A love like mine, Sir, I feel, is contracted once and for ever.
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 1, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
glosses: To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
examples: text: At that time, the city [Christiania, now Oslo] was in the grip of a cholera epidemic, and victims were dying at the rate of 60 a day. Bradshaw contracted the disease, and died on September 6 [1853].
ref: 1950 January, “Notes and News: George Bradshaw's Grave”, in Railway Magazine, pages 61–62:
text: An officer contracted hepatitis B and died after handling the blood-soaked clothing of a homicide victim […]
ref: 1999, Davidson C. Umeh, Protect Your Life: A Health Handbook for Law Enforcement Professionals, page 69:
glosses: To gain or acquire (an illness).
examples: text: And didſt contract, and purſe thy brow together, / As if thou then hadſt ſhut vp in thy braine, / Some horrible counſell: […]
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 45:
glosses: To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
examples: text: The truth is, ſhe and I (long ſince contracted) / Are now ſo ſure that nothing can diſſolve vs: […]
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], page 60, column 2:
glosses: To betroth; to affiance.
Synonyms: sense: lessen
word: abate
sense: lessen
word: decrease
sense: lessen
word: lessen
sense: lessen
word: reduce
sense: shorten
word: shorten
sense: shorten
word: shrink
sense: gain or acquire (an illness)
word: catch
sense: gain or acquire (an illness)
word: get
Derived terms: contractability
contractable
contractible
contraction
contractive
contract out of
decontract
recontract