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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Contracted \Con*tract"ed\ (k[o^]n*tr[a^]kt"[e^]d), adjective
1. Drawn together; shrunken; wrinkled; narrow; as, a contracted brow; a contracted noun.
2. Narrow; illiberal; selfish; as, a contracted mind; contracted views.
3. Bargained for; betrothed; as, a contracted peace.
Inquire me out contracted bachelors. --Shak.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Contract \Con*tract"\ (k[o^]n*tr[a^]kt"), verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Contracted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Contracting}.] [L. contractus, p. p. of contrahere to contract; con- + trahere to draw: cf. F. contracter. See {Trace}, and cf. {Contract}, noun]
1. To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action.
In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties. --Dr. H. More.
2. To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
Thou didst contract and purse thy brow. --Shak.
3. To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease.
Each from each contract new strength and light. --Pope.
Such behavior we contract by having much conversed with persons of high station. --Swift.
4. To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and lague with the aforesaid queen. --Hakluyt.
Many persons . . . had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity . . . prohibited by law. --Strype.
5. To betroth; to affiance.
The truth is, she and I, long since contracted, Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us. --Shak.
6. (Gram.) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
Syn: To shorten; abridge; epitomize; narrow; lessen; condense; reduce; confine; incur; assume.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
contracted
adjective: reduced in size or pulled together; "the contracted pupils of her eyes" [ant: {expanded}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
124 Moby Thesaurus words for "contracted": Spartan, abated, abbreviated, ablated, abridged, affianced, agreed, aposiopestic, arranged, assured, attenuated, bated, belittled, betrothed, blank, blind, blind-alley, bound, brief, brusque, cecal, choked, choked off, clamped, clipped, close, closed, committed, compact, compacted, compendious, compressed, compromised, concentrated, concise, condensed, consolidated, constricted, consumed, covenanted, cramped, crisp, curt, curtailed, cut, dead, dead-end, decreased, deflated, diminished, dissipated, docked, dropped, elliptic, engaged, epigrammatic, eroded, fallen, gnomic, guaranteed, intended, knitted, laconic, less, lesser, lower, lowered, miniaturized, nipped, obligated, pinched, pinched-in, pithy, pledged, plighted, pointed, promised, pruned, puckered, pursed, reduced, reserved, retrenched, scaled-down, sealed, sententious, settled, shorn, short, short and sweet, shortened, shorter, shrunk, shrunken, shut, signed, smaller, solidified, squeezed, squeezed shut, stipulated, strangled, strangulated, succinct, summary, sworn, synopsized, taciturn, terse, tight, to the point, truncated, undertaken, underwritten, unopen, unopened, unvented, unventilated, warranted, wasp-waisted, watered-down, weakened, worn, wrinkled
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