contain

present singular third person contains · participle present containing · participle past contained · past contained

1. transitiveTo hold inside.

   a spray bottle containing water.

   3 more examples

   The brown box contains three stacks of books.

   At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

   1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

   [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria,[…].

   2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

   Synonyms: enclose, inhold

2. transitiveTo include as a part.

   Most of the meals they offer contain meat.

   1 more example

   Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.

   2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884

   Synonyms: comprise, embody, incorporate, inhold

3. transitiveTo put constraints upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.

   I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself!

   4 more examples

   Fear not, my lord: we can contain ourselves.

   c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act INDUCTION, scene i]

   [The king's] only Person is oftentimes instead of an Army, to contain the unruly People from a thousand evil Occasions.

   1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC

   Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.

   1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16

   There she goes / There she goes again / Racing through my brain / And I just can't contain / This feeling that remains

   1988, Lee Mavers, “There She Goes”, in Sixpence None the Richer, performed by Sixpence None the Richer, published 1997

   Synonyms: control

4. transitivemathematicsTo have as an element or subset.

   A group contains a unique inverse for each of its elements.

   1 more example

   If that subgraph contains the vertex in question then it must be spanning.

5. intransitiveobsoleteTo restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.

   But if they cannot contain, let them marry.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Bible Corinthians/#8 1 Corinthians:8–9