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p. p. of Ta, to take, or a contraction of Taken. [Poetic & Scot.] Burns.

encompass or embrace; to comprise; to comprehend. (c) To draw into a smaller compass; to contract; to brail or furl; as, to take in sail. (d) To cheat; to circumvent; to gull; to deceive. [Colloq.] (e) To admit; to receive; as, a leaky vessel will take in water. (f) To win by conquest. [Obs.] For now Troy's broad-waye…

Contract work. [R.] Knight.

acceptance; as, a tender of a loan, of service, or of friendship; a tender of a bid for a contract. A free, unlimited tender of the gospel. South.

art; a sinew. Tendon reflex (Physiol.), a kind of reflex act in which a muscle is made to contract by a blow upon its tendon. Its absence is generally a sign of disease. See Knee jerk, under Knee.

plant by which it becomes attached to a supporting body, after which the tendril usually contracts by coiling spirally.

Giving the sensation of tension, stiffness, or contraction. A tensive pain from distension of the parts. Floyer.

Propositions or promises, as in contracts, which, when assented to or accepted by another, settle the contract and bind the parties; conditions.

ce, and later to sixpence, sterling. Hence, in modern English slang, a sixpence; -- often contracted to tizzy. Called also teston. Shak.

f or pertaining to tetanus; having the character of tetanus; as, a tetanic state; tetanic contraction. This condition of muscle, this fusion of a number of simple spasms into an apparently smooth, continuous effort, is known as tetanus, or tetanic contraction. Foster.

To throw, as a muscle, into a state of permanent contraction; to cause tetanus in. See Tetanus, n., 2.

That condition of a muscle in which it is in a state of continued vibratory contraction, as when stimulated by a series of induction shocks.

Influenced in its contraction by heat or cold; -- said of a muscle.

The property possessed by living protoplasm of contracting, and thus moving, when touched by a solid or fluid substance.

The right which the owner of a mill possesses, by contract or law, to compel the tenants of a certain district, or of his sucken, to bring all their grain to his mill for grinding. Erskine.

An affection apparently congenital, consisting in tonic contraction and stiffness of the voluntary muscles occurring after a period of muscular inaction.

A contraction of Through.

A contracted portion of a vessel, or of a passage way; as, the throat of a pitcher or vase.

A common contraction of it is.

The state of healty tension or partial contraction of muscle fibers while at rest; tone; tonus.