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The act of adding two or more things together; -- opposed to subtraction or diminution. "This endless addition or addibility of numbers." Locke.

The molecular attraction exerted between bodies in contact. See Cohesion.

Apt or tending to adhere; clinging. Thomson. Adhesive attraction. (Physics) See Attraction. -- Adhesive inflammation (Surg.), that kind of inflammation which terminates in the reunion of divided parts without suppuration. -- Adhesive plaster, a sticking; a plaster containing resin, wax, litharge, and olive oil.…

That attraction which takes place, at an insensible distance, between the heterogeneous particles of bodies, and unites them to form chemical compounds; chemism; chemical or elective affinity or attraction.

A contraction for are not and am not; also used for is not. [Colloq. or llliterate speech]. See An't.

A contraction of amperometer or ampèremeter.

ement, movement produced, as in the amoeba, by successive processes of prolongation and retraction.

tion by adding to that which is already known or received. "All bodies possess power of attraction" is an ampliative judgment; because we can think of bodies without thinking of attraction as one of their immediate primary attribute. Abp. W. Thomson.

To keep in extraction; to beguile; to delude. He amused his followers with idle promises. Johnson.

A contraction for are and am not; also used for is not; -- now usually written ain't. [Colloq. & illiterate speech.]

h. Angina pectoris, a peculiarly painful disease, so named from a sense of suffocating contraction or tightening of the lower part of the chest; -- called also breast pang, spasm of the chest.

with the elements of water; -- so called because it may be formed from an acid by the abstraction of water.

The contraction of a word by the omission of a letter or letters, which omission is marked by the character ['] placed where the letter or letters would have been; as, call'd for called.

Natural tendency; affinity; attraction; -- used of inanimate objects.

The substance from which attraction spheres develop in mitotic cell division, and of which they consist.

Constriction or contraction of some natural passage, as in constipation from inflammation.

or territorial defense, living at home and having only occasional periods of drill and instraction, who are variously called home reserves (as in the table below), second, third, etc., line of defense (the regular army and its reserves ordinarily constituting the first line of defense), territorial forces, or the like.…

A contraction of art thou. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A disease, characterized by difficulty of breathing (due to a spasmodic contraction of the bronchi), recurring at intervals, accompanied with a wheezing sound, a sense of constriction in the chest, a cough, and expectoration.

A contraction of parts by applications; the action of an astringent substance on the animal economy. Dunglison.