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Misconception, error, which when non-negligent may be ground for rescinding a contract, or for refusing to perform it. No mistake, surely; without fail; as, it will happen at the appointed time, and no mistake. [Low]

formerly prefixed to the name of a woman, married or unmarried, but now superseded by the contracted forms, Mrs., for a married, and Miss, for an unmarried, woman. Now Mistress Gilpin (careful soul). Cowper.

hing is to be measured; standard. He that despairs measures Providence by his own little, contracted model. South.

The first public examinations for degrees at the University of Oxford; -- usually contracted to mods.

as, to modify a contrivance adapted to some mechanical purpose; to modify the terms of a contract.

The arrangement of, or mode of expressing, the terms of a contract or conveyance.

ent, upon a condition that if the debt or engagement shall be discharged according to the contract, the conveyance shall be void, otherwise to become absolute, subject, however, to the right of redemption.

Capability of motion; contractility.

To contract mold; to grow moldy; to mold. [Obs.] Let us not moulen thus in idleness. Chaucer.

An organ which, by its contraction, produces motion. See Illust. of Muscles of the Human Body, in Appendix.

by which we obtain knowledge of the condition of our muscles and to what extent they are contracted, also of the position of the various parts of our bodies and the resistance offering by external objects.

The department of physiology which deals with the principles of muscular contraction; the exercise of muscular force or contraction.

ining and recording the different phases, as the intensity, velocity, etc., of a muscular contraction.

The description of muscles, including the study of muscular contraction by the aid of registering apparatus, as by some form of myograph; myology.

A contractile striated layer found in the bodies and stems of certain Infusoria.

Long-continued contraction of the pupil of the eye.

Producing myosis, or contraction of the pupil of the eye, as opium, calabar bean, etc. -- n.

Contracted; of limited scope; illiberal; bigoted; as, a narrow mind; narrow views. "A narrow understanding." Macaulay.

One who, or that which, narrows or contracts. Hannah More.

The act of contracting, or of making or becoming less in breadth or extent.