Obs. [ad. L. tractāre to handle, transact, manage, discuss, treat, freq. of trahĕre to draw. Cf. F. traiter, OF. traicter, rarely tracter, to manage, TREAT (Godef.).]
1. trans. To negotiate: = TREAT v. 1 b.
1508. in Lett. Rich. III. & Hen. VII. (Rolls), I. 451. The l[ove and kindnes] that have been used in the tracting of our said mariage.
2. To deal with in speech or writing; to discuss or discourse (trans., or intr. with of): = TREAT v. 2, 2 b.
1529. St. Papers Hen. VIII., II. 149. Whiche thinge is not to be tracted, or retracted, till the Parliament.
1552. Huloet, Tract or treat of, tracto.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., 60. The sacraments … haue ane verray highe place in Christiane doctrine, and ar necessarie to be tractit of.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 396. Of all which kinde of traps shall be severally tracted: And first of all those which do catch Mice alive.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, trans. Horace’s Art of Poetry, 202. The man, who … Saw many towns and men, and could their manners tract.
3. trans. To behave towards: = TREAT v. 7.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. IV., 15 b. The Erle … so gently and familiarly used and tracted the vulgare people. Ibid., Rich. III., 46 b. Nothinge contented that the erle of Richmonde was in his dominion so vncurteously tracted and entreated.
