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Communicable by contact, by a virus, or by a bodily exhalation; catching; as, a contagious disease.

A disease communicable by contact with a patient suffering from it, or with some secretion of, or object touched by, such a patient. Most such diseases have already been proved to be germ diseases, and their communicability depends on the transmission of the living germs. Many germ diseases are not contagious, some sp…

To soil, stain, or corrupt by contact; to tarnish; to sully; to taint; to pollute; to defile. Shall we now Contaminate our figures with base bribes Shak. I would neither have simplicity imposed upon, nor virtue contaminated. Goldsmith.

In actual contact; touching; also, adjacent; near; neighboring; adjoining. The two halves of the paper did not appear fully divided . . . but seemed contiguous at one of their angles. Sir I. Newton. Sees no contiguous palace rear its head. Goldsmith. Contiguous angles. See Adjacent angles, under Angle.…

Union or connection; the state of touching or contact. "Point of contingency." J. Gregory.

To soil by contact, as with soot, or with the coloring matter of badly dyed cloth.

In the game of croquet, to drive away an opponent's ball, after putting one's own in contact with it, by striking one's own ball with the mallet.

- so called from its tendence to explode when mixed with atmospheric air and brought into contact with flame.

Dissolving; liquefying by contact with the air; capable of attracting moisture from the atmosphere and becoming liquid; as, deliquescent salts.

A part that transmits motion to another part by contact with it, or through an intermediate relatively movable part, as a gear which drives another, or a lever which moves another through a link, etc. Specifically:

edge, to cause a disagreeable tingling sensation in the teeth, as by bringing acids into contact with them. Bacon.

porating surface (Steam Boilers), that part of the heating surface with which water is in contact.

s or plants, material prepared by the generative organs the female organism is brought in contact with matter from the organs of the male, so that a new organism results; impregnation; fertilization.

tributed all over the body, especially by those of the skin; to have sensation excited by contact of (a thing) with the body or limbs. Who feel Those rods of scorpions and those whips of steel. Creecn.

Anything serving as a cushion to lessen the shock when a vessel comes in contact with another vessel or a wharf.

Like fibrinoplastin; capable of forming fibrin when brought in contact with fibrinogen.

machine; especially (Mech.) a small projecting rod, wire, or piece, which is brought into contact with an object to effect, direct, or restrain a motion.

The coincidence of parts that come in contact.

uze, a fuze in which substances separated until required for action are then brought into contact, and uniting chemically, produce explosion. -- Concussion fuze, a fuze ignited by the striking of the projectile. -- Electric fuze, a fuze which is ignited by heat or a spark produced by an electric current. -- Friction…

nt for measuring angles, especially the angles of crystals, or the inclination of planes. Contact, or Hand, goniometer, a goniometer having two movable arms (ab, cd), between which (at ab) the faces of the crystals are placed. These arms turn about a fixed point, which is the center of the graduated circle or semicircl…