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The act of drawing, or the state of being drawn; as, the traction of a muscle.

A locomotive driving wheel which acts by friction adhesion to a smooth track.

Of or relating to traction.

g, separating, or withdrawing, or the state of being withdrawn; withdrawal. A wrongful abstraction of wealth from certain members of the community. J. S. Mill.

Pertaining to abstraction.

An idealist. Emerson.

The act or property of attracting; the effect of the power or operation of attraction. Newton.

The central mass of the aster in mitotic cell division; centrosphere.

r 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.

A taking away or withdrawing. [Obs.] The detraction of the eggs of the said wild fowl. Bacon.

The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation. To create distractions among us. Bp. Burnet.

The act of extracting, or drawing out; as, the extraction of a tooth, of a bone or an arrow from the body, of a stump from earth, of a passage from a book, of an essence or tincture.

act of delaying the termination of a thing; prolongation; continuance; delay; as, the protraction of a debate. A protraction only of what is worst in life. Mallock.

The act of retracting, or drawing back; the state of being retracted; as, the retraction of a cat's claws.

Subtraction; deduction. [Obs.]

The act or operation of subtracting or taking away a part.

To make briefer; to shorten; to abridge; to reduce by contraction or omission, especially of words written or spoken. It is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off. Bacon.

The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by contraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.

Inattention to things present; abstraction (of mind); as, absence of mind. "Reflecting on the little absences and distractions of mankind." Addison. To conquer that abstraction which is called absence. Landor.

Resulting from the mental faculty of abstraction; general as opposed to particular; as, "reptile" is an abstract or general name. Locke. A concrete name is a name which stands for a thing; an abstract name which stands for an attribute of a thing. A practice has grown up in more modern times, which, if not introduced b…