Inquire me out contracted bachelors.
Shak.
Con*tract"ed*ness, n. The state of being contracted; narrowness; meanness; selfishness.
Con*tract`i*bil"i*ty (?), n. Capability of being contracted; quality of being contractible; as, the contractibility and dilatability of air. Arbuthnot.
Con*tract"i*ble (?), a. Capable of contraction.
Small air bladders distable and contractible.
Arbuthnot.
Con*tract"i*ble*ness, n. Contractibility.
Con*tract"ile (?), a. [Cf. F. contractile.] tending to contract; having the power or property of contracting, or of shrinking into shorter or smaller dimensions; as, the contractile tissues.
The heart's contractile force.
H. Brooke.
Each cilium seems to be composed of contractile substance.
Hixley.
Contractile vacuole (Zo÷l.), a pulsating cavity in the interior of a protozoan, supposed to be excretory in function. There may be one, two, or more.
Con`trac*til"i*ty (?), n. 1. The quality or property by which bodies shrink or contract.
2. (Physiol.) The power possessed by the fibers of living muscle of contracting or shortening.
&fist; When subject to the will, as in the muscles of locomotion, such power is called voluntary contractility; when not controlled by the will, as in the muscles of the heart, it is involuntary contractility.
Con*trac"tion (?), n. [L. contractio: cf. F. contraction.] 1. The act or 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 tendon; the contraction produced by cold.