an expanse or area of land, water, etc.; region; stretch.
Anatomy.
a definite region or area of the body, especially a group, series, or system of related parts or organs: the digestive tract.
a bundle of nerve fibers having a common origin and destination.
a stretch or period of time; interval; lapse.
Roman Catholic Church. an anthem consisting of verses of Scripture, sung after the gradual in the Mass from Septuagesima until the day before Easter and on certain other occasions, taking the place of the alleluias and the verse that ordinarily accompany the gradual.
Ornithology. a pteryla.
Origin of tract
1
1350–1400; (in senses referring to extent of space) < Latintractus stretch (of space or time), a drawing out, equivalent to trac-, variant stem of trahere to draw + -tus suffix of v. action; (def 4) < Medieval Latintractus, apparently identical with the above, though literal sense unexplained
"area," late 15c., "period or lapse of time," from Latin tractus "track, course, space, duration," lit, "a drawing out or pulling," from stem of trahere "to pull, draw," from PIE root *tragh- "to draw, drag, move" (cf. Slovenian trag "trace, track," Middle Irish tragud "ebb," perhaps with a variant form *dhragh-; see drag (v.)). The meaning "stretch of land or water" is first recorded 1550s. Specific U.S. sense of "plot of land for development" is recorded from 1912; tract houses attested from 1963.
n.2
"little book, treatise" mid-12c., probably a shortened form of Latin tractatus "a handling, treatise, treatment," from tractare "to handle" (see treat). Not in any other language, according to OED.
‘Rectal Feeding’ Has Nothing to Do with Nutrition, Everything to Do with Torture