(n.) To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action.
(n.) To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
(n.) To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease.
(n.) To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
(n.) To betroth; to affiance.
(n.) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
(v. i.) 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.
(v. i.) To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail.
(a.) Contracted; as, a contract verb.
(a.) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
(n.) 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.
(n.) A formal writing which contains the agreement of parties, with the terms and conditions, and which serves as a proof of the obligation.
(n.) The act of formally betrothing a man and woman.
Example Sentences:
(1) During the performance of propulsive waves of the oesophagus the implanted vagus nerve caused clonic to tetanic contractions of the sternohyoid muscle, thus proving the oesophagomotor genesis of the reinnervating nerve fibres.
(2) But RWE admitted it had often only been able to retain customers with expired contracts by offering them new deals with more favourable conditions.
(3) Thus adrenaline, via pre- and post-junctional adrenoceptors, may contribute to enhanced vascular smooth muscle contraction, which most likely is sensitized by the elevated intracellular calcium concentration.
(4) Further, the maximal increase in force of contraction was measured using papillary muscle strips from some of these patients.
(5) When subjects centered themselves actively, or additionally, contracted trunk flexor or extensor muscles to predetermined levels of activity, no increase in trunk positioning accuracy was found.
(6) Twitch-tetanus ratios were calculated and found not to be related to unit contraction time.6.
(7) Selective removal of endothelium had no effect on BK-induced contraction or the action of the antagonists.
(8) The increased muscular strength in due to a rise of calcaemia, improved muscle contraction and probably also due to the mentioned nutritional factors.
(9) However, there was not a relationship between the contraction curve of the gallbladder and the bile flow into the duodenum.
(10) In in vitro preparations GABA (10(-7) - 10(-3) M) elicited a dose-dependent relaxation; a decrease in the spontaneous contractions was sometimes observed.
(11) There was no correlation between disturbed gastric clearance, impaired gall bladder contraction, and prolonged colonic transit time in the patients with cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy nor was there a correlation between any disturbed motor function and age or duration of diabetes.
(12) Noradrenaline decreased the phasic contraction amplitude of the circular muscle and exerted a stimulant effect on the tone which suggested an existence of two alpha 1-adrenoceptor subtypes.
(13) It may, however, be useful to compare local wall dynamics in the more isometrically-contracting basal segment with those in the middle portion which brings about most of the emptying of the ventricle.
(14) Upon depletion of ATP in contraction, the P2 intensity reverted to the original rigor level, accompanied by development of rigor tension.
(15) L-NAME abolished B contractions in a dose-dependent fashion.
(16) The power spectrum of the EMG was analyzed during isometric contractions of the shoulder muscles.
(17) A23187 had only a transient effect on KCl-contracted coronary arteries.
(18) When caffeine evokes a contraction, and only then, crayfish muscle fibers become refractory to a second challenge with caffeine for up to 20 min in the standard saline (5 mM K(o)).
(19) Dopamine at concentrations over 10(-5)M induced contractions of tracheal muscle strips and repeated exposures resulted in desensitization (tachyphylaxis) of the muscle.
(20) In the present study we examined cholecystokinin release and gallbladder contraction after oral administration of a commercial fatty meal (Sorbitract; Dagra, Diemen, The Netherlands) using ultrasonography in eight normal subjects and eight gallstone patients before and after 1 and 4 weeks of treatment with ursodeoxycholic acid (10 mg kg-1.day-1).
Handfast
Definition:
(n.) Hold; grasp; custody; power of confining or keeping.
(n.) Contract; specifically, espousal.
(a.) Fast by contract; betrothed by joining hands.
(v. t.) To pledge; to bind; to betroth by joining hands, in order to cohabitation, before the celebration of marriage.
(n.) Strong; steadfast.
Example Sentences:
(1) It was his suggestion to incorporate handfasting into their ceremony, a pagan tradition where the couple’s hands are symbolically tied together with ribbons, which is a common feature of humanist weddings.
(2) Overnight he had also carried out around a dozen "handfasting" ceremonies – the pagan equivalent of weddings.