Noun
The act or process of contracting, shortening, or shrinking; the state of being contracted; as, contraction of the heart, of the pupil of the eye, or of a tendion; the contraction produced by cold.
The process of shortening an operation.
The act of incurring or becoming subject to, as liabilities, obligation, debts, etc.; the process of becoming subject to; as, the contraction of a disease.
Something contracted or abbreviated, as a word or phrase; -- as, plenipo for plenipotentiary; crim. con. for criminal conversation, etc.
The shortening of a word, or of two words, by the omission of a letter or letters, or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one; as, ne'er for never; can't for can not; don't for do not; it's for it is.
A marriage contract.
Source: Webster's dictionaryIt is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never stops within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength. Michel de Montaigne
I've always felt that complement of opposites: body and soul, solitude and companionship, and in the dance studio, contraction and release, rise and fall. Judith Jamison
The contraction from 1929 to 1933 was by far the most severe business-cycle contraction during the near-century of U. S. history we cover and it may well have been the most severe in the whole of U. S. history. Milton Friedman
We have to demonstrate to the public that our commitment is protecting public services in the face of a spending contraction which is inevitable. Philip Hammond
The contraction from 1929 to 1933 was by far the most severe business-cycle contraction during the near-century of U. S. history we cover and it may well have been the most severe in the whole of U. S. history. Anna Schwartz
It is of course the nature of historical contraction that the shortest distance to a historical destination is never a straight line. Ibrahim Babangida