Contract /(kŏn*trăkt")/

imp. & p. p. Contracted; p. pr. & vb. n. Contracting

1. To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action.

   In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties.

2. To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.

   Thou didst contract and purse thy brow.

3. To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease.

   Each from each contract new strength and light.

   Such behavior we contract by having much conversed with persons of high station.

4. To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.

   We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and lague with the aforesaid queen.

   Many persons . . . had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity . . . prohibited by law.

5. To betroth; to affiance.

   The truth is, she and I, long since contracted, Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.

6. To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one. (Gram.)

1. To be drawn together so as to be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet.

   Years contracting to a moment.

2. To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail.

1. Contracted; as, a contract verb.

1. Contracted; affianced; betrothed. [Obs.]

1. The agreement of two or more persons, upon a sufficient consideration or cause, to do, or to abstain from doing, some act; an agreement in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing; a formal bargain; a compact; an interchange of legal rights. (Law)
2. A formal writing which contains the agreement of parties, with the terms and conditions, and which serves as a proof of the obligation.
3. The act of formally betrothing a man and woman.

   This is the the night of the contract.