contraction
/kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/ nom C1En français : contraction
- An act of incurring debt; also (generally), an act of acquiring something (generally negative). · Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.
- The process of contracting or becoming infected with a disease. · the contraction of malaria
- A stage of wound healing during which the wound edges are gradually pulled together.
- A shortening of a muscle during its use; specifically, a strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.
- A period of economic decline or negative growth. · The country’s economic contraction was caused by high oil prices.
- A process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme (a word) are reduced or lost, such that it becomes a bound morpheme (a clitic) that attaches phonologically to an adjacent word. · In the English words didn’t, that’s, and wanna, the endings -n’t, -’s, and -a arose by contraction.
- A shortened form of a word; in English the omitted letters are often replaced by an apostrophe or a diacritical mark. · Don’t is a contraction of do not; and ’til is a contraction of until.
- Synonym of syncope (“the elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable”).
Pluriel contractions
Dans la bibliothèque
As Danglars approached the disappointed lover, he cast on him a look of deep meaning, while Fernand, as he slowly paced behind the happy pair, who seemed, in their own unmixed content, to have entirely forgotten that such a being as himself existed, was pale and abstracted; occasionally, however, a deep flush would overspread his countenance, and a nervous contraction distort his features, while, with an agitated and restless gaze, he would glance in the direction of Marseilles, like one who either anticipated or foresaw some great and important event.
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