Meanings
- obsoleteuncountableAn act of touching.
For ſphærical bodies move by fives, and every globular figure placed upon a plane, in direct volutation, returns to the firſt point of contaction in the firſt touch, accounting by the Axes of the Diameters or Cardinall points of the four quarters thereof.
1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter III.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 1411 more example
For the act of laughter, which is evidenced by a sweet contraction of the muscles of the face, and a pleasant agitation of the vocal organs, is not merely voluntary, or totally within the jurisdiction of ourselves, but, as it may be constrained by corporal contaction in any, and hath been enforced in some even in their death, so the new, unusual, or unexpected, jucundities which present themselves to any man in his life, at some time or other, will have activity enough to excitate the earthiest soul, and raise a smile from the most composed tempers.
1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC
Synonyms & antonyms
Cite this entry
contaction. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contaction
“contaction.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contaction. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “contaction,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contaction.
Source: contaction on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.