contractable (kontraktabl)

[ Influences which we call moral, which are usually imitative, and which are contractable by imitation. B. W. Richardson, Prevent. Med., p. 447. contract ant (kon-trak'tant), n. [F. contrac tant ; as contract + -anti.] In law , a contracting party. That trading ve els of any of the contract ants , under convoy, shall lodge with the commander of the convoying ve el their pa ports and certificates or sea-letters, drawn up according to a certain form. Woolsey, Introd. to Inter. Law, § 191. contractationt (kon-trak-tā'shon), n. A contract; the act of making a contract. 1232 ing or shrinking into a smaller compa or length: as, contractile muscles or fibers.-2. Producing contraction; capable of shortening or making smaller. The heart's contractile force. Brooke, Universal Beauty, iv. Observation of the ascent of water in capillary tubes shows that the contractile force of a thin film of water is about sixteen milligrammes weight per millimetre of breadth. Thomson and Tait , Nat. Phil., I. ii., App. (F). Specifically -3. In entom ., capable of being doubled in close to the lower surface of the thorax, and fitting into grooves so as to be hardly distinguishable from the general surface: said of the legs, etc., of insects. This structure is found in many Coleoptera which feign death on being alarmed. The body of an insect is said to be contractile when the prothorax and head can be folded down on the trunk, as in certain Coleoptera and Hyme noptera. Contractile vacuole. See vacuole .