a. [f. L. contract-: ppl. stem (as above) + -IVE.] Having the property of contracting; producing, or tending to produce, contraction; of the nature of contraction.
1624. Bargrave, Serm., 27. Wee are all borne with this contractive quality of selfe-love and interest.
1669. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 139. Their Systole or contractive motion.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., I. 38. Violent pains … sometimes pungent, by and by Contractive, or Spasmodick.
1708. J. Keill, Anim. Secretion, 97. This Contractive or Elastick Power … is not equal in all Bodies.
1718. J. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos., I. viii. § 10. The contractive Faculty of the Heart.
1867. Denison, Astron. without Math., 116. But this contractive force … is only half the other separating or differential force.
Hence † Contractively adv. = next.
1648. T. Hill, Best & Worst of Paul, 15. Some tell us Jeremiah and Zachary, written contractively in the Hebrew, are the same.
