(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).
Lessen
Definition:
(a.) To make less; to reduce; to make smaller, or fewer; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; as, to lessen a kingdom, or a population; to lessen speed, rank, fortune.
(v. i.) To become less; to shrink; to contract; to decrease; to be diminished; as, the apparent magnitude of objects lessens as we recede from them; his care, or his wealth, lessened.
Example Sentences:
(1) The transmission of alcoholism and its effects are thereby lessened for future generations of children of alcoholics.
(2) Bacteria can stop or lessen antibodies synthesis process.
(3) Behavioral variables, including interreinforcement interval and drug self-administration history, appear to be important determinants of whether or not reinforcement will be demonstrated, particularly among the benzodiazepines; but the range of conditions under which behavioral and pharmacological variables interact to promote or lessen the likelihood of self-administration of these drugs remains to be determined experimentally.
(4) "It is in my power to lessen their sentence – it's not excluded that that will happen."
(5) Diminished pressor responsiveness was considered to be due to concurrent reduction of central sympathetic vasomotor activity, because sympathetic nerve responses to hypothalamic stimulation were appreciably lessened in tripamide-treated SHR.
(6) The introduction of biological valves or of valves with a lessened risk of embolism is highly desirable in such cases.
(7) In this paper, these and related facts were summarized and some precautions were suggested to lessen the increase of resistant strains in this country.
(8) Recent improvements in surgical techniques and selective embolization have lessened the risks of surgical excision, decreased the blood loss, and diminished the time required for resection.
(9) We have previously shown that in the cat, taurine is an osmoprotective molecule that lessens mortality, neurological morbidity, and brain-cell dehydration during chronic hypernatremic dehydration.
(10) Rats given Sendai virus concurrently with the FCA, or any time after FCA was injected, did not have a lessened severity of the arthritic reaction, as compared with that in control animals.
(11) A decrease in relative risks since diagnosis of the first primary cancer was seen that may partly be attributed to a lessening of the intensity of medical surveillance with time.
(12) Incorporation of porosity into the grafts, which is necessary for tissue ingrowth, is expected to lessen this difference.
(13) The data strongly suggest that conferring the sick role on the mentally ill does not lessen rejection, but may, in some instances, increase social rejection.
(14) In contrast, hydroxyurea treatment was associated with a 1.5-fold to sevenfold increase in F cells and a 2.3- to 27-fold increase in the percentage of Hb F. In the three patients whose response reached a plateau, hydroxyurea treatment was associated with lessened hemolysis, decreased serum bilirubin and lactate dehydrogenase levels, and prolonged 51chromium-labeled RBC survival.
(15) O’Malley also called for: The relationship between federal immigration law enforcement and local law enforcement to be significantly lessened.
(16) Utilization of outpatient surgical centers helps reduce the cost of health care, lessens the disruption of patients' personal lives, and promotes their recovery through early ambulation and a lower incidence of postoperative nosocomial complications.
(17) It also lessened the hypertonus of isolated guinea-pig trachea caused by pilocarpine.
(18) The use of tissue allografts lessens patient morbidity and suffering and in many cases spares limbs and lives.
(19) Unlike acute combinations, chronic imipramine lessened the rate reducing effect of methadone.
(20) The results of a bronchial challenge to Aspergillus species, however, remained positive; these positive results suggest that long-term memory immune mechanisms may play an important role in the pathogenesis of hypersensitivity pneumonitis and lessen the importance of precipitins in establishing a diagnosis.