Contraction

5 definitions found

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

  Contraction \Con*trac"tion\, 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]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  contraction
       n 1: (physiology) a shortening or tensing of a part or organ
            (especially of a muscle or muscle fiber) [syn: {muscular
            contraction}, {muscle contraction}]
       2: the process or result of becoming smaller or pressed
          together; "the contraction of a gas on cooling" [syn: {compression},
           {condensation}]
       3: a word formed from two or more words by omitting or
          combining some sounds; "`won't' is a contraction of `will
          not'"; "`o'clock' is a contraction of `of the clock'"
       4: the act of decreasing (something) in size or volume or
          quantity or scope [ant: {expansion}]

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

  57 Moby Thesaurus words for "contraction":
     Speedwriting, abatement, abbreviation, abridgment, alleviation,
     apocope, aposiopesis, attenuation, brachygraphy, clipping,
     coarctation, constriction, crasis, cutting, dampening, damping,
     decrease, decrement, decrescence, deduction, deflation,
     depreciation, depression, diminishment, diminution, dying,
     dying off, elision, ellipsis, extenuation, fade-out, languishment,
     lessening, letup, lowering, miniaturization, mitigation, narrowing,
     phonography, pruning, reduction, relaxation, sagging, scaling down,
     shortening, shorthand, simplicity, stenography, stricture,
     subtraction, syncope, syneresis, tachygraphy, taper, tapering,
     truncation, weakening
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  contraction
       
          {reduction}
       
       

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CONTRACTION. An abbreviation; a mode of writing or printing by which some of 
  the letters of a word are omitted. See Abbreviations.