Definitions
1.nounA reversible reduction in size.
2.nounA period of economic decline or negative growth."The country's economic contraction was caused by high oil prices."
3.nounA shortening of a muscle when it is used.
4.nounA strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.
5.nounA process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme (a word) are lost or reduced, such that it becomes a bound morpheme (a clitic) that attaches phonologically to an adjacent word."In English didn't, that's, and wanna, the endings -n't, -'s, and -a arose by contraction."
6.noun(English orthography) A word with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe, usually resulting from the above process.""Don't" is a contraction of "do not.""
7.nounA shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity.
8.nounThe process of contracting a disease."the contraction of malaria"
9.nounSyncope, the loss of sounds from within a word.
10.nounThe acquisition of something, generally negative."Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors."
11.nounA distinct stage of wound healing, wherein the wound edges are gradually pulled together.