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To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lesen; as, to contract one's shpere of action. In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties. Dr. H. More.

tending to contract; having the power or property of contracting, or of shrinking into shorter or smaller dimensions; as, the contractile tissues. The heart's contractile force. H. Brooke. Each cilium seems to be composed of contractile substance. Hixley. Contractile vacuole (Zoöl.), a pulsating cavity in the interior…

The power possessed by the fibers of living muscle of contracting or shortening.

The act or process of contracting, shortening, or shrinking; the state of being contracted; as, contraction of the heart, of the pupil of the eye, or of a tendion; the contraction produced by cold.

To come together; to meet; to unite. [R.] In shortsighted men . . . the rays converge and convene in the eyes before they come at the bottom. Sir I. Newton.

Deserving chastisement; punishable. [Obs.] He was taken up very short, and adjudged corrigible for such presumptuous language. Howell.

A sudden flash or play of light. A very vivid but exceeding short-lived splender, not to call coruscation. Boyle.

aried in size between the tapir and rhinoceros, and were allied to those animals, but had short, plantigrade, five-toed feet, like the elephant.

A surplice, in England and America usually one shorter and less full than the ordinary surplice and with short sleeves, or sometimes none.

eds of the cotton plant. Long-staple cotton has a fiber sometimes almost two inches long; short-staple, from two thirds of an inch to an inch and a half.

Curved; rounded. [Obs.] Her neck is short, her shoulders courb. Gower.

A short coat of coarse cloth. [Obs.] Full threadbare was his overeste courtepy. Chaucer.

r distance, to pass over; as, the rider covered the ground in an hour. -- To cover one's short contracts (Stock Exchange), to buy stock when the market rises, as a dealer who has sold short does in order to protect himself. -- Covering party (Mil.), a detachment of troops sent for the protection of another detachment…

One of the brachyuran Crustacea. They are mostly marine, and usually have a broad, short body, covered with a strong shell or carapace. The abdomen is small and curled up beneath the body.

l strings at right angles to the line between the wickets. -- Return crease (Cricket), a short line at each end of the bowling crease and at right angles to it, extending toward the bowler. -- Popping crease (Cricket),, a line drawn in front of the wicket, four feet distant from it, parallel to the bowling crease and…

The time given for payment for lands or goods sold on trust; as, a long credit or a short credit.

A kind of patten mounted on short pieces of iron instead of rings; also, a fixture with iron points worn on a shoe to prevent one from slipping.

A dagger or short sword used by the Malays, commonly having a serpentine blade. [Written also crease and kris.] From a Malayan creese to a sailor's jackknife. Julian Hawthorne.

A poetic foot, composed of one short syllable between two long ones (-Bentley.

To form with short turns, bends, or wrinkles; to mold into inequalites or sinuosities; to cause to wrinkle or curl. The houscrinkled to and fro. Chaucer. Her face all bowsy, Comely crinkled, Wondrously wrinkled. Skelton. The flames through all the casements pushing forth, Like red-not devils crinkled into snakes. Mrs.…