(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.
