contra arithmetical (kon"traarithmetikal)

Used only in the following phrase: Contra-arithmetical proportion, the relation between the three quantities a, b, and c when a -ba-c=c: b -that is, when a = b +c. The series of phyllotactic numbers, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc., are in continued contra-arithmetical proportion. contraband (kon'tra-band), a. and n. IMG:content-1185.jpg:[graphic] [= D. contrabande = G. contraband, contreband = Dara. kontraband = F. contrebande, IMG:content-1186.png:[blocks in formation] Men who gain subsistence by contraband dealing, And a mode of abstraction strict people call "stealing." Barham , In golds by Legends, I. 308. To restrain contraband intelligence and trade, a system of searches, seizures, permits, and pa es had been introduced, I think, by Gen. Fremont. Lincoln, in Raymond, p. 404. Articles by general consent deemed to be contraband are such as appertain immediately to the uses of war. Woolsey, Introd. to Inter. Law, § 179. Contraband goods, such goods as are prohibited to be imported or exported by the laws of a particular kingdom or state, or by the law of nations, or by special treaties. In time of war, arms and munitions of war, and such other articles as may directly aid belligerent operations (called contraband of war ), are not permitted by one belligerent to be transported by neutrals to the other, but are under the law of nations held to be contraband and liable to cap ture and condemnation. Contraband of war perhaps denoted at first that which a belligerent publicly prohibited the exportation of into his enemy's country, and now those kinds of goods which by the law of nations a neutral cannot send into either of the countries at war without wrong to the other, or which by conventional law the states making a treaty agree to put under this rubric. Persons most bound. Woolsey, Introd. to Inter. Law, § 178. In the very first commercial treaty made by the United States, that with France, the definition of contraband goods was also laid down as being solely munitions of war. E. Schuyler , American Diplomacy, p. 368. II. n. 1. Illegal or prohibited traffic. to prevent contraband. Burke , State of the Nation, App. This [the ocean] is a prodigious security against a direct contraband with foreign countries; but a circuitous contraband to one state, through the medium of another, would be both easy and safe. A. Hamilton , Federalist, No. 12. 2. Anything by law prohibited to be imported or exported. At this date the hawker bore a bad character for dealings in contraband. S. Dowell, Taxes in England, III. 35. 3. In the United States, during the civil war, a negro slave, especially an escaped or a captured slave: so called from a decision of General B. F. Butler, in 1861, that slaves coming into his lines or captured were contraband of war, and so subject to confiscation. What I have said of the proportion of free colored persons to the whites in the District [of Columbia] is from the census of 1860, having no reference to persons called con trabands. Lincoln, in Raymond, p. 326. Occasional contraband, goods treated as contraband by a belligerent, upon the pretext or justification that, though not ordinarily contraband, they are in effect such by reason of the peculiar circumstances of the occasion; doubtful articles put into the list of contraband by a belligerent merely because they are not the product of the exporting country, or because they are intended for a naval or military port, or for similar reasons. The doctrine of occasional contraband , or contraband according to circumstances, is not sufficiently established to be regarded as a part of the law of nations. Woolsey, Introd. to Inter. Law, § 180. contrabandt (kon'tra-band), v . t . [ The law severely contrabands Our taking busine off men's hands. S. Butler, Hudibras. moral: frequently used in legal discu ions: as, if not an infraction of law, it is certainly contra bonos mores. Contracts contra bonos mores are void. Rapalje and Lawrence , Law Dict., I. 279. contract (kon-trakt'), v. [= F. contracter = Sp. Pg. contractar, contra tar = It. contrat tare , , pp. of contra here , draw together, collect, occasion, cause, make a bargain, com- , together, + trahere , draw: see tract . Cf. attract , detract, extract, protract, retract .] I. trans. 1. To draw together or closer; draw into a smaller compa , either by compre ion or by the omi ion of parts; shorten; abridge; condense; narrow; le en: as, to contract a space or an inclosure; to contract the period of life; to con tract a word or an e ay. But I must contract my thoughts... that I may have room to insist on one plain, useful inference. Bp. Atterbury, Sermons, I. ix. It is painful to hear that a state which used to be foremost in acts of liberality is contracting her ideas, and pointing them to local and independent measures. Washington, in Bancroft's Hist. Const., I. 422. A government which contracts natural liberty le than others is that which best coincides with the aims attributed to rational creatures. Brougham . 2. To draw the parts of together; wrinkle; pucker. Thou cry'dst, Indeed? And didst contract and purse thy brow together. Shak ., Othello, iii. 3. 3. In gram., to shorten by combination of concurrent vowels into one long vowel or a diphthong.-4. To betroth; affiance. I'll be marry'd to Morrow, I'll be contracted to Night. Congreve, Way of the World, iii. 5. He has undertaken, should it be nece ary, to swear and prove that Charles is at this time contracted by vows and honour to your ladyship. Sheridan , School for Scandal, v. 3. 5. To make, settle, or establish by contract or agreement. IMG:content-1187.png:[blocks in formation] 6. To acquire, as by habit, use, or contagion; gain by accretion or variation; bring on; incur: as, to contract vicious habits by indulgence; to contract debt by extravagance; to contract disease. Each from each contract new strength and life. Pope . He had apparently contracted a strong and early pa ion for the stage. Gifford , Int. to Ford's Plays, p. xix. It is a bad thing that men should hate each other; but it is far worse that they should contract the habit of cutting one another's throats without hatred. Macaulay , Mitford's Hist. Greece. To contract a pair formed of two members of a linear series, in math., to put the prior member one place later in the series and the posterior member one place earlier.To contract marriage, to enter into marriage, as distinguished from making an engagement or precontract of marriage. Syn. 1. To condense, reduce, diminish. II. in trans. 1. To be drawn together; be renarrower; shrink. [= Sp. It was proved that one of the contrabandists had provided the ve el in which the ruffian O'Brien had carried Scum Goodman over to France. Macaulay , Hist. Eng., xxiii. contraba (kon'trä-bās), a. and n. [See con traba o.] I. a. In music, sounding an octave lower than another instrument of the same cla , or furnishing the lowest tones in a family of instruments: as, a contraba trombone, saxhorn, etc. Contraba tuba. See tuba . II. n. The largest instrument of the viol cla ; the double-ba (which see). Also con traba o .