A Latin adverb and preposition, signifying against, contrary, in opposition, etc., entering as a prefix into the composition of many English words. Cf. Counter, adv. & pref. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ It. contrabando; contra + bando ban, proclamation: cf. F. contrebande. See Ban an edict. ] 1. Illegal or prohibited traffic. [ 1913 Webster ]

Persons the most bound in duty to prevent contraband, and the most interested in the seizures. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Goods or merchandise the importation or exportation of which is forbidden. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A negro slave, during the Civil War, escaped to, or was brought within, the Union lines. Such slave was considered contraband of war. [ U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Contraband of war, that which, according to international law, cannot be supplied to a hostile belligerent except at the risk of seizure and condemnation by the aggrieved belligerent. Wharton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Prohibited or excluded by law or treaty; forbidden; as, contraband goods, or trade. [ 1913 Webster ]

The contraband will always keep pace, in some measure, with the fair trade. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To import illegally, as prohibited goods; to smuggle. [ Obs. ] Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To declare prohibited; to forbid. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The law severly contrabands
Our taking business of men's hands. Hudibras. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Traffic in contraband goods; smuggling. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who traffics illegally; a smuggler. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Mus.) The lowest stringed instrument of the violin family; the double bass; -- also applied to any instrument of the same deep range as the stringed double bass; as, the contrabass ophicleide; the contrabass tuba or bombardon. [ 1913 Webster + Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ It. contrabasso. ] (Mus.) The largest kind of bass viol. See Violone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the intentional prevention of conception or impregnation, especially when accomplished by the use of contraceptive medications or devices; a form of birth control. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. capable of preventing conception or impregnation; as, contraceptive devices and medications.
Syn. -- prophylactic. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a substance or device used to prevent conception.
Syn. -- preventive, preventative, contraceptive device, prophylactic device, prophylactic. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. in the direction opposite to the rotation of the hands of a clock; counterclockwise. Opposite of clockwise. [ Also See: sinistral. ]
Syn. -- counterclockwise, anticlockwise. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Contracted; p. pr. & vb. n. Contracting. ] [ L. contractus, p. p. of contrahere to contract; con- + trahere to draw: cf. F. contracter. See Trace, and cf. Contract, n. ] 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties. Dr. H. More. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou didst contract and purse thy brow. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease. [ 1913 Webster ]

Each from each contract new strength and light. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

Such behavior we contract by having much conversed with persons of high station. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for. [ 1913 Webster ]

We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and lague with the aforesaid queen. Hakluyt. [ 1913 Webster ]

Many persons . . . had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity . . . prohibited by law. Strype. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To betroth; to affiance. [ 1913 Webster ]

The truth is, she and I, long since contracted,
Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Gram.) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.

Syn. -- To shorten; abridge; epitomize; narrow; lessen; condense; reduce; confine; incur; assume. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Years contracting to a moment. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Contracted; as, a contract verb. Goodwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. contractus, p. p. ] Contracted; affianced; betrothed. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. contractus, fr. contrahere: cf. F. contrat, formerly also contract. ] 1. (Law) The agreement of two or more persons, upon a sufficient consideration or cause, to do, or to abstain from doing, some act; an agreement in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing; a formal bargain; a compact; an interchange of legal rights. Wharton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A formal writing which contains the agreement of parties, with the terms and conditions, and which serves as a proof of the obligation. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The act of formally betrothing a man and woman. [ 1913 Webster ]

This is the the night of the contract. Longwellow.

Syn. -- Covenant; agreement; compact; stipulation; bargain; arrangement; obligation. See Covenant. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. capable of being transmitted by infection; same as communicable, 1; -- of disease.
Syn. -- catching, communicable, contagious, transmissible, transmittable. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. 1. Drawn together; shrunken; wrinkled; narrow; as, a contracted brow; a contracted noun. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Narrow; illiberal; selfish; as, a contracted mind; contracted views. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Bargained for; betrothed; as, a contracted peace. [ 1913 Webster ]

Inquire me out contracted bachelors. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being contracted; narrowness; meanness; selfishness. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Capability of being contracted; quality of being contractible; as, the contractibility and dilatability of air. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of contraction. [ 1913 Webster ]

Small air bladders distable and contractible. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Contractibility. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. contractile. ] tending to contract; having the power or property of contracting, or of shrinking into shorter or smaller dimensions; as, the contractile tissues. [ 1913 Webster ]

The heart's contractile force. H. Brooke. [ 1913 Webster ]

Each cilium seems to be composed of contractile substance. Hixley. [ 1913 Webster ]

Contractile vacuole (Zool.), a pulsating cavity in the interior of a protozoan, supposed to be excretory in function. There may be one, two, or more. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The quality or property by which bodies shrink or contract. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Physiol.) The power possessed by the fibers of living muscle of contracting or shortening. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ When subject to the will, as in the muscles of locomotion, such power is called voluntary contractility; when not controlled by the will, as in the muscles of the heart, it is involuntary contractility. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the act or process of acquiring an infectious disease; contraction; as, the contracting of a serious illness can be financially catastrophic.
Syn. -- catching. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ L. contractio: cf. F. contraction. ] 1. 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 tendon; the contraction produced by cold. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Math.) The process of shortening an operation. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Something contracted or abbreviated, as a word or phrase; -- as, plenipo for plenipotentiary; crim. con. for criminal conversation, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Gram.) 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A marriage contract. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Tending to contract; having the property or power or power of contracting. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. ] One who contracts; one of the parties to a bargain; one who covenants to do anything for another; specifically, one who contracts to perform work on a rather large scale, at a certain price or rate, as in building houses or making a railroad. [ 1913 Webster ]

. 1. The sweating system. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. The system of employing convicts by selling their labor (to be performed inside the prison) at a fixed price per day to contractors who are allowed to have agents in the prison to superintend the work. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (Babylonian & Assyrian Antiq.) A clay tablet on which was inscribed a contract, for safe keeping. Such tablets were inclosed in an outer case (often called the envelope), on which was inscribed a duplicate of the inscription on the inclosed tablet. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ L. contractura a drawing together. ] (Med.) A state of permanent rigidity or contraction of the muscles, generally of the flexor muscles. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Pref. contra- + dance: cf. F. contrdance. Cf. Country-dance. ] A dance in which the partners are arranged face to face, or in opposite lines. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Contradicted; p. pr. & vb. n. Contradicting. ] [ L. contradictus, p. p. of contradicere to speak against; contra + dicere to speak. See Diction. ] 1. To assert the contrary of; to oppose in words; to take issue with; to gainsay; to deny the truth of, as of a statement or a speaker; to impugn. [ 1913 Webster ]

Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,
And say it is not so. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The future can not contradict the past. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To be contrary to; to oppose; to resist. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

No truth can contradict another truth. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

A greater power than we can contradict
Hath thwarted our intents. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To oppose in words; to gainsay; to deny, or assert the contrary of, something. [ 1913 Webster ]

They . . . spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Acts xiii. 45. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being contradicted. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. one who contradicts. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. contradictio answer, objection: cf. F. contradiction. ] 1. An assertion of the contrary to what has been said or affirmed; denial of the truth of a statement or assertion; contrary declaration; gainsaying. [ 1913 Webster ]

His fair demands
Shall be accomplished without contradiction. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Direct opposition or repugnancy; inconsistency; incongruity or contrariety; one who, or that which, is inconsistent. [ 1913 Webster ]

can he make deathless death? That were to make
Strange contradiction. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

We state our experience and then we come to a manly resolution of acting in contradiction to it. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

Both parts of a contradiction can not possibly be true. Hobbes. [ 1913 Webster ]

Of contradictions infinite the slave. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

Principle of contradiction (Logic), the axiom or law of thought that a thing cannot be and not be at the same time, or a thing must either be or not be, or the same attribute can not at the same time be affirmed and and denied of the same subject; also called the law of the excluded middle. It develops itself in three specific forms which have been called the “Three Logical Axioms.” First, “A is A.” Second, “A is not Not-A” Third, “Everything is either A or Not-A.” [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Contradictory; inconsistent; opposing. [ R. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Filled with contradictions; inconsistent. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Inclined to contradict or cavil [ Obs. ] Sharp.

-- Con`tra*dic"tious*ness, n. Norris. [1913 Webster]

a. Contradictory; inconsistent. -- Con`tra*dict"ive*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

n. [ L. ] A contradicter. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a contradictory manner. Sharp. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being contradictory; opposition; inconsistency. J. Whitaker. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ LL. contradictorius: cf. F. contradictoire. ] 1. Affirming the contrary; implying a denial of what has been asserted; also, mutually contradicting; inconsistent. “Contradictory assertions.” South. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Opposing or opposed; repugnant. [ 1913 Webster ]

Schemes . . . contradictory to common sense. Addisn. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Contradictories 1. A proposition or thing which denies or opposes another; contrariety. [ 1913 Webster ]

It is common with princes to will contradictories. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. pl. (Logic) propositions with the same terms, but opposed to each other both in quality and quantity. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Distinguished by opposite qualities. J. Goodwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Distinction by contrast. [ 1913 Webster ]

That there are such things as sins of infirmity in contradistinction to those of presumption is not to be questioned. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. having the quality of contradistinction; distinguishing by contrast. -- Con`tra*dis*tinc"tive, n. [1913 Webster]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Contradistinguished p. pr. & vb. n. Contradistinguishing. ] To distinguish by a contrast of opposite qualities. [ 1913 Webster ]

These are our complex ideas of soul and body, as contradistinguished. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]