Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of contracted
Explanation
Something contracted has shrunk or become smaller. Your pupils tend to be contracted in bright sunlight. Contracted is an adjective that usually describes physical things. If your eyebrows look contracted, they are probably furrowed and scrunched up. If your tummy is contracted, it is probably drawn in and flat. Economies and budgets can also be contracted, if they have undergone the painful process of shrinking. If your belly is contracted, buy a bikini. If your budget is contracted, you are better off not buying anything.
Vocabulary lists containing contracted
"Watership Down" by Richard Adams, Chapter 43-Epilogue
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Verstappen was previously contracted to the end of 2028, but there were clauses in his contract that would have allowed him to leave at the end of the current Formula One season had he wanted.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
The fabricated content appeared on X in posts impersonating legitimate French media outlets and falsely claimed that Attal had Parkinson's disease and that Philippe had contracted an illness.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
Some of these are contracted overseas, while others are seemingly settling in for the long haul.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Swiss GDP last contracted in the third quarter of 2025, as the first round of U.S. tariffs filtered through the economy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Next the reader—assuming he or she has not contracted the disease during the long cooking process—should “rub the temples and loins with this preparation...wash the mouth, and snuff up some of it into the nostrils.”
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
