Contact

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Contact \Con"tact\ (k[o^]n"t[a^]kt), n. [L. contactus, fr.
     contingere, -tactum, to touch on all sides. See
     {Contingent}.]
     1. A close union or junction of bodies; a touching or
        meeting.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. (Geom.) The property of two curves, or surfaces, which
        meet, and at the point of meeting have a common direction.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Mining) The plane between two adjacent bodies of
        dissimilar rock. --Raymond.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. (Electricity) A metallic conducting component of an
        electrical device connected to a circuit within and so
        situated that it may form a conducting pathway to an
        external power source or device when contacted by another
        conductor; as, the contact on a standard light bulb has
        the shape of a screw for easy insertion into the socket.
        [PJC]
  
     5. A person who serves to commmunicate information to or from
        one group to another, whether formally or informally; as,
        a good Washington reporter has contacts in the White
        House.
        [PJC]
  
     {Contact level}, a delicate level so pivoted as to tilt when
        two parts of a measuring apparatus come into contact with
        each other; -- used in precise determinations of lengths
        and in the accurate graduation of instruments.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  contact
       n 1: close interaction; "they kept in daily contact"; "they
            claimed that they had been in contact with
            extraterrestrial beings"
       2: the state or condition of touching or of being in immediate
          proximity; "litmus paper turns red on contact with an
          acid"
       3: the act of touching physically; "her fingers came in contact
          with the light switch"
       4: the physical coming together of two or more things; "contact
          with the pier scraped paint from the hull" [syn: {impinging},
           {striking}]
       5: a person who is in a position to give you special
          assistance; "he used his business contacts to get an
          introduction to the governor" [syn: {middleman}]
       6: a channel for communication between groups; "he provided a
          liaison with the guerrillas" [syn: {liaison}, {link}, {inter-group
          communication}]
       7: (electronics) a junction where things (as two electrical
          conductors) touch or are in physical contact; "they forget
          to solder the contacts" [syn: {tangency}]
       8: a communicative interaction; "the pilot made contact with
          the base"; "he got in touch with his colleagues" [syn: {touch}]
       9: a thin curved glass or plastic lens designed to fit over the
          cornea in order to correct vision or to deliver medication
          [syn: {contact lens}]
       v 1: be in or establish communication with; "Our advertisements
            reach millions"; "He never contacted his children after
            he emigrated to Australia" [syn: {reach}, {get through},
             {get hold of}]
       2: be in direct physical contact with; make contact; "The two
          buildings touch"; "Their hands touched"; "The wire must
          not contact the metal cover"; "The surfaces contact at
          this point" [syn: {touch}, {adjoin}, {meet}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  153 Moby Thesaurus words for "contact":
     ESP, accord, acquaintance, answer, approach, arbitrator,
     assail the ear, association, attouchement, be heard, breath,
     broker, brush, brush by, caress, caress the ear, closeness,
     come in contact, commerce, communicate with, communication,
     communion, companionship, concord, congress, conjunction,
     connection, contiguity, contingence, conversation, converse,
     correspond, correspond with, correspondence, cutaneous sense,
     dealing, dealings, empathy, establish connection, exchange, feel,
     feeling, fellowship, fingertip caress, flick, friend,
     gain a hearing, get, get across, get hold of, get through to,
     get to, glance, go-between, graze, hand-mindedness, harmony, hit,
     impinge, impingement, impingence, in, information, interaction,
     interagent, interchange, intercommunication, intercommunion,
     intercourse, intermediary, intermediate, intermedium, internuncio,
     interplay, interpleader, interrogate, junction, kiss, lambency,
     lap, lick, light touch, linguistic intercourse,
     maintain connection, make advances, make an impression,
     make contact with, make oneself heard, make overtures, make up to,
     mediator, medium, message, middleman, nearness, negotiant,
     negotiator, nudge, oneness, osculate, osculation, phone,
     propinquity, proximity, question, raise, rapport, reach,
     reach the ear, register, relate to, relation, reply, reply to,
     respond to, response, ring up, rub, scrape, sense of touch, shave,
     sideswipe, skim, skirt, social intercourse, speak to, speak with,
     speaking, speech, speech circuit, speech situation, squeak by,
     stroke, sympathy, tactile sense, taction, talking, tangency, tap,
     telepathy, telephone, tentative contact, tentative poke, touch,
     touching, traffic, truck, two-way communication, understanding,
     union, unity, whisper, write to