(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).
Patronage
Definition:
(n.) Special countenance or support; favor, encouragement, or aid, afforded to a person or a work; as, the patronage of letters; patronage given to an author.
(n.) Business custom.
(n.) Guardianship, as of a saint; tutelary care.
(n.) The right of nomination to political office; also, the offices, contracts, honors, etc., which a public officer may bestow by favor.
(n.) The right of presentation to church or ecclesiastical benefice; advowson.
(v. t.) To act as a patron of; to maintain; to defend.
Example Sentences:
(1) But critics say that bringing the judicial system under political control will do nothing to improve its efficiency, and instead will leave judges dependent on political patronage and subject to political pressure.
(2) Patronage at the airport in the early years would not justify a dedicated rail link.
(3) The primary need of the people is not western-style educational patronage, but an end to the arms trade and multinational looting of resources.
(4) State, regional and municipal public administrations remain politicised and ridden by patronage.
(5) The fall of the general – a man who "kills people easily" claimed one witness – came after his own rebel movement turned against him and he lost the patronage of neighbouring Rwanda .
(6) As the locus of many migrants' investments, the village of Los Pinos has experienced a modest growth in the number of full-time jobs paying somewhat above the minimum urban wage and in a variety of petty entrepreneurial activities depending heavily on the patronage of migrant households, themselves heavily subsidized by remittances.
(7) Zhang has enjoyed the patronage of former president Jiang Zemin.
(8) Suu Kyi's relationship with the generals has reportedly turned sour again In her tireless efforts to secure cooperation from the military, Suu Kyi has repeatedly expressed her appreciation, respect and “genuine” affection for the Tatmadaw (feudal military), which her father founded under Japan’s fascist patronage in December 1942, much to the dismay of many minorities who have borne the brunt of the organisation’s ruthless policies.
(9) Liaqat Baloch, a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a rightwing religious-political party, said: “Malala is a Pakistani student and she is getting a lot of support and patronage abroad.
(10) The proposition was attacked by others who claimed it would save very little from the Whitehall budget while simply weakening ministerial patronage – a great controlling hand over government, particularly in a time of coalition.
(11) At the last major budget meeting in July, politicians of the left and right buried their differences to agree on strengthening a four-year budget that privatised local authority-owned companies (a huge source of patronage and corruption), and ended the stranglehold of the ordini – self-regulating associations that control entry into the law, medicine and other professions.
(12) Despite numerous irregularities ... you have managed to thwart this regime’s congenital traps of fraud.” Bongo, 57, who first won election after his father Omar died in 2009 after 42 years as president, has benefited from the power of incumbency as well as a patronage system lubricated by oil largesse.
(13) It is clear Sayeed appears to operate with a measure of patronage from the Pakistani establishment and the Zardari government recently cleared the purchase of a bulletproof Land Cruiser for him.
(14) He may not be able to cling to his status as the nation's court jester, however, without the BBC's patronage.
(15) The [relief] measures will not affect anyone earning above €1,000 a month.” Patronage politics and vested interests had made it impossible for Greek governments, including prime minister Antonis Samaras’s fragile, two-party alliance, to step back and reform.
(16) The local Turkomen and Yazidi population have additionally formed their own militias under the patronage of local and foreign backers.
(17) However, legislation and rules of provision's patronage are complex and appear misunderstood with themselves who regularly use them in their practice.
(18) Zuma's governing African National Congress (ANC), re-elected in May, has long been dogged by allegations of patronage and cronyism.
(19) As one example of potential situations that Hezbollah fears, the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, long abused by the Assad dynasty in such acts as the massacre by Hafez-al Assad at Hama in 1982, would be highly reluctant to accept the continued Iranian patronage and guidance that characterises the current Assad-Iran relationship.
(20) In many ways, the election will be a clash of epic proportions, a battle between a long-time president and a new challenger, between Russia and the West, between personal patronage and corporate sponsorship, between old friends turned enemies.