Meaning of Contraction | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Senses relating to becoming involved with or entering into, especially entering into a contract.
   countable, uncountable
2. An act of incurring debt; also (generally), an act of acquiring something (generally negative).
   countable, uncountable
3. An act of entering into a contract or agreement; specifically, a contract of marriage; a contracting; also (obsolete), a betrothal.
   archaic, countable, uncountable
4. The process of contracting or becoming infected with a disease.
   countable, uncountable
5. Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
   archaic, countable, obsolete, uncountable
6. A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.
   archaic, countable, obsolete, uncountable
7. An abridgement or shortening of writing, etc.; an abstract, a summary; also (uncountable), brevity, conciseness.
   archaic, countable, obsolete, uncountable
8. A stage of wound healing during which the wound edges are gradually pulled together.
   countable, uncountable
9. A shortening of a muscle during its use; specifically, a strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.
   countable, uncountable
10. A period of economic decline or negative growth.
    countable, uncountable
11. A process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme (a word) are reduced or lost, such that it becomes a bound morpheme (a clitic) that attaches phonologically to an adjacent word.
    countable, uncountable
12. In the English language: a shortened form of a word, often with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe or a diacritical mark.
    countable, uncountable
13. Synonym of syncope (“the elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable”).
    countable, uncountable
14. The preimage of the given ideal under the given homomorphism.
    countable, uncountable
15. A shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity.
    broadly, countable, uncountable
16. An act of collecting or gathering.
    countable, obsolete, rare, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.”

“the contraction of malaria”

“Railway workers were therefore a perfect subject for research, given the varied roles they undertook. If infection was greatest among the non-public-facing staff, it would suggest – given most worked outside – that contraction was caused by something found in the "atmosphere at large". If affliction was higher among the indoor and public-facing staff, it would suggest that human contact was the cause. And it was the latter point that was proven.”

“Though occasionally a “flatliner” can be revived with a defib, it is most commonly used to change the uncoordinated contractions of the heart (fibrillation) into a normal sinus rhythm—that is, to defibrillate the heart.”

“The country’s economic contraction was caused by high oil prices.”

“In the English words didn’t, that’s, and wanna, the endings -n’t, -’s, and -a arose by contraction.”

“Don’t is a contraction of do not; and ’til is a contraction of until.”

CEFR level