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A Latin adverb and preposition, signifying against, contrary, in opposition, etc., entering as a prefix into the composition of many English words. Cf. Counter, adv. & pref.

Illegal or prohobited traffic. Persons the most bound in duty to prevent contraband, and the most interested in the seizures. Burke.

Traffic in contraband gods; smuggling.

One who traffic illegaly; a smuggler.

-- applied to any instrument of the same deep range as the stringed double bass; as, the contrabass ophicleide; the cotrabass tuba or bombardon.

The largest kind of bass viol. See Violone.

raw 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.

ts by selling their labor (to be performed inside the prison) at a fixed price per day to contractors who are allowed to have agents in the prison to superintend the work.

A clay tablet on which was inscribed a contract, for safe keeping. Such tablets were inclosed in an outer case (often called the envelope), on which was inscribed a duplicate of the inscription on the inclosed tablet.

Drawn together; shrunken; wrinkled; narrow; as, a contracted brow; a contracted noun.

The state of being contracted; narrowness; meannes; selfishness.

Capability of being contracted; quality of being contractible; as, the contractibiliy and dilatability of air. Arbuthnot.

Capable of contraction. Small air bladders distable and contractible. Arbuthnot.

Contractibility.

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 quality or property by which bodies shrink or contract.

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.

Tending to contract; having the property or power or power of contracting.

One who contracts; one of the parties to a bargain; one who covenants to do anything for another; specifically, one who contracts to perform work on a rather large scale, at a certain price or rate, as in building houses or making a railroad.

A state of permanent rigidity or contraction of the muscles, generally of the flexor muscles.