CONTRACTING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.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.

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Etymology of 'Contracting'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Contracting" Quotes from Famous Books

... active operation, and cases under them are by no means infrequent. Indeed, instead of being behind the age, the marriage laws in the Southern States are in advance of public opinion; for very rarely will a Southern community stop to figure on the pedigree of the contracting parties to a marriage where one is white and the other is known to have any strain of ...

— The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, and - Selected Essays • Charles Waddell Chesnutt

... son-in-law, and the young prince was dismissed in disgrace. He however succeeded in establishing a treaty of peace with the Poles, which was to continue twenty years. He also was successful in contracting an alliance for his daughter Axinia, with Duke John of Denmark. The marriage was celebrated in Moscow in 1602 with great splendor. But even before the marriage festivities were closed, the duke was taken sick and died, to ...

— The Empire of Russia • John S. C. Abbott

... we proceeded towards Adelaide, which lay about six miles to the northward, in the centre of a rich plain, stretching from the foot of Mount Lofty to the sea, and contracting gradually to the southward, where beyond Glenelg it rises into downs, increasing in height as they approach Cape Jervis, and ultimately blending with spurs thrown off from Mount Lofty range. Adelaide itself is situated on the banks of the Torrens, a ...

— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2 • John Lort Stokes

... contradiction, distance in space makes things look small, and therefore free from defect. This is why a landscape looks so much better in a contracting mirror or in a camera obscura, than it is in reality. The same effect is produced by distance in time. The scenes and events of long ago, and the persons who took part in them, wear a charming aspect to the eye of memory, which sees ...

— The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Studies in Pessimism • Arthur Schopenhauer

... can never be recalled. I have heard of myriads who have fallen into the greatest misfortunes through inability to govern their tongues. Passing over the rest, I will mention one or two cases in point. When Ptolemy Philadelphus married his sister Arsinoe, Sotades said, "You are contracting an unholy marriage."[30] For this speech he long lingered in prison, and paid the righteous penalty for his unseasonable babbling, and had to weep a long time for making others laugh. Theocritus the ...

— Plutarch's Morals • Plutarch

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