To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action.
To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease.
To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
To betroth; to affiance.
To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
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.
To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail.
Contracted; as, a contract verb.
Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
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.
A formal writing which contains the agreement of parties, with the terms and conditions, and which serves as a proof of the obligation.
The act of formally betrothing a man and woman.
That which binds, ties, fastens, or confines, or by which anything is fastened or bound, as a cord, chain, etc.; a band; a ligament; a shackle or a manacle.
The state of being bound; imprisonment; captivity, restraint.
A binding force or influence; a cause of union; a uniting tie; as, the bonds of fellowship.
Moral or political duty or obligation.
A writing under seal, by which a person binds himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, to pay a certain sum on or before a future day appointed. This is a single bond. But usually a condition is added, that, if the obligor shall do a certain act, appear at a certain place, conform to certain rules, faithfully perform certain duties, or pay a certain sum of money, on or before a time specified, the obligation shall be void; otherwise it shall remain in full force. If the condition is not performed, the bond becomes forfeited, and the obligor and his heirs are liable to the payment of the whole sum.
A financial instrument (of the nature of the ordinary legal bond) made by a government or a corporation for purpose of borrowing money; a written promise to pay a specific sum of money on or before a specified day, given in return for a sum of money; as, a government, city, or railway bond.
The state of goods placed in a bonded warehouse till the duties are paid; as, merchandise in bond.
The union or tie of the several stones or bricks forming a wall. The bricks may be arranged for this purpose in several different ways, as in English bond or block bond (Fig. 1), where one course consists of bricks with their ends toward the face of the wall, called headers, and the next course of bricks with their lengths parallel to the face of the wall, called stretchers; Flemish bond (Fig.2), where each course consists of headers and stretchers alternately, so laid as always to break joints; Cross bond, which differs from the English by the change of the second stretcher line so that its joints come in the middle of the first, and the same position of stretchers comes back every fifth line; Combined cross and English bond, where the inner part of the wall is laid in the one method, the outer in the other.
A unit of chemical attraction between atoms; as, oxygen has two bonds of affinity. Also called chemical bond. It is often represented in graphic formulæ by a short line or dash. See Diagram of Benzene nucleus, and Valence. Several types of bond are distinguished by chemists, as double bond, triple bond, covalent bond, hydrogen bond.
A heavy copper wire or rod connecting adjacent rails of an electric railway track when used as a part of the electric circuit.
League; association; confederacy.
A vassal or serf; a slave.
To place under the conditions of a bond; to mortgage; to secure the payment of the duties on (goods or merchandise) by giving a bond.
To dispose in building, as the materials of a wall, so as to secure solidity.
In a state of servitude or slavery; captive.