What's the difference between contract and shorten?

Contract


Definition:

  • (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).

Shorten


Definition:

  • (a.) To make short or shorter in measure, extent, or time; as, to shorten distance; to shorten a road; to shorten days of calamity.
  • (a.) To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen; to abridge; to curtail; to contract; as, to shorten work, an allowance of food, etc.
  • (a.) To make deficient (as to); to deprive; -- with of.
  • (a.) To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, pot liquor, or the like.
  • (v. i.) To become short or shorter; as, the day shortens in northern latitudes from June to December; a metallic rod shortens by cold.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The extent of the infectious process was limited, however, because the life span of the cultures was not significantly shortened, the yields of infectious virus per immunofluorescent cell were at all times low, and most infected cells contained only a few well-delineated small masses of antigen, suggestive of an abortive infection.
  • (2) Hearing loss at 8 kHz would shorten the I-V interval, while a loss at 4 kHz would be expected to lengthen the interval.
  • (3) Both systems indicated that the Kupffer cell modified endotoxin by enriching the lipid content of the molecule and shortening the length of the O-antigen.
  • (4) Platelet survival time in patients with Crohn's disease proved to be significantly shortened (p less than 0.001), whereas platelet turnover appeared augmented.
  • (5) Shorten said any arrangement needed to be consistent with international obligations, with asylum seekers afforded due process and their claims properly assessed.
  • (6) Rapid, on-site detection of chlamydial antigen in male FVU would shorten the infectious period by hastening diagnosis and treatment.
  • (7) Isometric exercise induces a significant shortening of both intervals although minor for QT so that the ratio significantly increases in comparison to baseline (p less than .001).
  • (8) Light-induced cone shortening provides a useful model for stuying nonmuscle contraction because it is linear, slow, and repetitive.
  • (9) In the V fibers, APD was lengthened by F, Q, and B, and shortened by L and M. The drug-induced changes in the relation between APD and CL were as in the P fibers.
  • (10) The CL was also longer in the duodenum, whereas the CD was shortened, indicating a reduction of the wave movements from the stomach antrum to the duodenum in the ranitidine periods.
  • (11) Chloride caused a significant concentration-dependent shortening of myosin rods due to destabilization of the alpha-helical double coiled rod structure.
  • (12) Strong correlations were found also between postsystolic shortening and thickening measured immediately before reperfusion and systolic shortening and thickening measured after recovery at 2-3 weeks (r = 0.73, n = 28; p less than 0.001 for shortening; r = 0.79, n = 12; p less than 0.01 for thickening).
  • (13) Slight but significant shortening of the latency of initial positivity in the evoked potential was observed after rearing in the enriched condition as compared to the data obtained from the littermates that were reared in the standard or impoverished conditions.
  • (14) When using pair stimula, barbamil shortens the period of absolute nonexcitation and the second phase of depression in the cycle of restituted H-reflexes to the second stimula in the pair.
  • (15) Accordingly, RV systolic SL shortening did not rise despite the substantial augmentation in RV outflow.
  • (16) Chloroquine administration shortened the time taken to reach peak plasma paracetamol concentration (tmax) in five of the volunteers.
  • (17) The survival time of the lambs was markedly shortened with the bubble oxygenator, although much longer than had been anticipated.
  • (18) An algorithm for the treatment of cryptococcosis complicating AIDS may shorten the duration of primary intravenous AB therapy.
  • (19) VT returned to control levels, expiratory time shortened, and breathing frequency increased.
  • (20) Isotonically, peak muscle shortening was reduced in the left muscle, whereas time to peak shortening was prolonged in the right myocardium.