contractile (kontraktil)

[ shrinking; the condition of becoming smaller in extent or dimensions through the nearer approach to one another of the parts; the state of being contracted; a decrease in volume, bulk, or dimensions, as from lo of heat. All bodies, with very few exceptions, expand by the application of heat, and contract when heat is withdrawn. (See exp an sion and heat.) Contraction also takes place when a gas is condensed to a liquid, and in most cases when a liquid is changed to a solid; there are, however, some exceptions, as water, which expands on solidifying. Contraction of the pupil takes place not only under the stimulus of light, but also in looking at very near objects. The reason of this is, that correction of spherical aberration is thus made more perfect. Le Conte , Sight, p. 40. 2. The act of making short, of abridging, or of reducing within a narrower compa by any means; the act of le ening or making smaller in amount; the state of being so le ened; reduction; diminution; abridgment: as, a con traction of the currency. He [the farmer] has done his best to become rich; he has mortgaged, and he has repudiated his mortgages; he has tried inflation, and contraction too; and yet he cannot make more than seven or eight per cent. The Nation , July 15, 1875, Specifically-3. A shortening of a word in pronunciation pronunciation or in writing: ing: as, can't is a con traction of cannot. In writing, contraction takes place, as in pronunciation, primarily by the omi ion of intermediate letters; but also by writing in a smaller character the last letter above the word contracted, by running two or more letters into one character, by using symbols representing syllables or words, and by the use of initial letters: as, reed, for received; qm for quam; & for et. Specifically, in Gr. gram., the union of the concurrent vowels of two syllables into one long vowel or diphthong-that is, of ow into w, of ee into ei, etc. See abbreviation, 2. 4. In anc. pros., the use of a single long time or syllable in place of two short times. Thus, in the dactylic hexameter, a spondee (--) can be substituted in the first four feet for a dactyl (((), one long being metrically equivalent to two shorts; but such a substitution is admi ible only in certain kinds of verse and in certain parts of a foot or line, according to special rules. In the dactylic hexameter, for example, the fifth foot must ordinarily be a dactyl, not a spondee. The converse of contraction is resolution. The heart, as said, from its contractive cave, On the left side ejects the bounding wave. Black more, Creation.