[a. OF. contract, var. of contrait:—L. contract-us, pa. pple. of contrahĕre: see next.] = CONTRACTED.
† A. as pa. pple.: a. see CONTRACT v. 3, 5; b. see CONTRACT v. 7–9. Now arch. or poetic.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 260. Whan the soule is put in oure body, right anoon is contract original synne.
1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., c. 38 § 2. Such mariages beyng contracte and solemnised in the face of the church.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., III. vii. 179. For first was he contract to Lady Lucie.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, II. I. I. xxii. The … prepossessing prejudice, that I Perhaps may have contract.
b. c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 223. Þe lyme þat it servede fore schal be contract.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 2253. His handes and his fete … Were sodenly smytten, made lame, contracte also.
1545. Raynold, Byrth of Mankynde, 71. Bycause the place is contracte together agayne.
1773. J. Ross, Fratricide, III. 37 (MS.). With limbs contract through bitterness of pain.
1854. Syd. Dobell, Balder, xxiv. 172. The painful limbs, contract with pangs.
B. as adj. † a. Narrowed, limited, abbreviated, condensed, etc.: see CONTRACT v. 9. Obs.
1561. Eden, Arte Nauig., II. xix. 50. His beames shew them selues contracte, or gathered together & short.
1608. D. T., Ess. Pol. & Mor., 16. This contract world of our frayle and humaine bodies.
1621. T. Bedford, Sinne unto Death, 10. Something more contract he is then Aquinas.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, II. III. IV. vi. What judgeth so but envie, and vain pride, And base contract self-love?
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, To Rdr. 3. I might have been more contract perhaps.
† b. Of the body or limbs: Drawn together, shrunken (with paralysis, etc.). Obs.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, III. xxviii. (1869), 5. Thanne j go speke with the trewaundes, and make hem to seem embosed, or contract, or deff, or dowm.
1460. Capgrave, Chron., 291. He was so contracte, that his body was scarce a cubite of length.
† c. Arith. Of numbers: Restricted to some particular object: concrete. Obs.
[1557. Recorde, Whetst., A ij. That nomber is contracte from his generall libertie of signification, which is bounde to one denomination, as in saiyng 10 grotes.]
1600. T. Hylle, Arte Vulgar Arith., ix. § 107. Number is first diuided … In number abstract and number contract.
† d. Logic. Abridged, abbreviated: see quots.
1605. A. Wotton, Answ. Pop. Articles, 4. A simple syllogisme is either contract, or explicate.
1628. T. Spencer, Logick, 261. A contract Syllogisme, is when the argument … is so applyed to the particular question, that it is the antecedent in both parts; and the assumption affirmed.
e. Gram. Marked by contraction; = CONTRACTED 5 d.
1751. Wesley, Wks. (1872), XIV. 112. Most verbs in μι are formed from Contract Verbs.
1884. Hadley & Allen, Grk. Gram., § 410. In the optative active, contract verbs have generally -ιη- in the singular. Ibid., § 412. Seven verbs in -αω take η instead of ᾱ in the contract forms.
C. as sb.
† 1. A person whose limbs are contracted or shrunken (cf. B. b); a paralytic.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 428/3, xiii. contractes or fylled wyth paralysye were by the same restoryd in good helthe.
† 2. An abridgement, compendium, epitome.
a. 1657. R. Loveday, Lett. (1663), 259. That there may be room enough for something else, take it thus in contract.
1667. Wallis, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), II. 476. I am not for making the book bigger … [it] being intended for a manual or contract.
3. Gram., etc. A contracted form or word; a contraction, abbreviation.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. I. iii. 20. Now it is very evident that the name X H N A is but the contract of Canaan.
1884. Hadley & Allen, Grk. Gram., § 41. In contracts of the first and second declensions, a short vowel followed by α … is absorbed: ὸστέ-α, ὀστᾶ.
