Word Meanings - CONTRACTILE - Book Publishers vocabulary database

tending to contract; having the power or property of contracting, or of shrinking into shorter or smaller dimensions; as, the contractile tissues. The heart's contractile force. H. Brooke. Each cilium seems to be composed of contractile substance.

Additional info about word: CONTRACTILE

tending to contract; having the power or property of contracting, or of shrinking into shorter or smaller dimensions; as, the contractile tissues. The heart's contractile force. H. Brooke. Each cilium seems to be composed of contractile substance. Hixley. Contractile vacuole , a pulsating cavity in the interior of a protozoan, supposed to be excretory in function. There may be one, two, or more.

Related words: (words related to CONTRACTILE)

• FORCE
  To stuff; to lard; to farce. Wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit. Shak.
• HAVENED
  Sheltered in a haven. Blissful havened both from joy and pain. Keats.
• COMPOSITOUS
  Belonging to the Compositæ; composite. Darwin.
• TENDER
  A vessel employed to attend other vessels, to supply them with provisions and other stores, to convey intelligence, or the like. 3. A car attached to a locomotive, for carrying a supply of fuel and water. (more info) 1. One who tends; one who takes
• HEARTWOOD
  The hard, central part of the trunk of a tree, consisting of the old and matured wood, and usually differing in color from the outer layers. It is technically known as duramen, and distinguished from the softer sapwood or alburnum.
• HEART
  A hollow, muscular organ, which, by contracting rhythmically, keeps up the circulation of the blood. Why does my blood thus muster to my heart! Shak. Note: In adult mammals and birds, the heart is four-chambered, the right auricle and ventricle
• HAVENER
  A harbor master.
• POWERFUL
  Large; capacious; -- said of veins of ore. Syn. -- Mighty; strong; potent; forcible; efficacious; energetic; intense. -- Pow"er*ful*ly, adv. -- Pow"er*ful*ness, n. (more info) 1. Full of power; capable of producing great effects of any
• POWERABLE
  1. Capable of being effected or accomplished by the application of power; possible. J. Young. 2. Capable of exerting power; powerful. Camden.
• TENDERLY
  In a tender manner; with tenderness; mildly; gently; softly; in a manner not to injure or give pain; with pity or affection; kindly. Chaucer.
• HEARTBROKEN
  Overcome by crushing sorrow; deeply grieved.
• TENDANCE
  1. The act of attending or waiting; attendance. Spenser. The breath Of her sweet tendance hovering over him. Tennyson. 2. Persons in attendance; attendants. Shak.
• TENDERNESS
  The quality or state of being tender (in any sense of the adjective). Syn. -- Benignity; humanity; sensibility; benevolence; kindness; pity; clemency; mildness; mercy.
• CONTRACTIBLE
  Capable of contraction. Small air bladders distable and contractible. Arbuthnot.
• SHRINKINGLY
  In a shrinking manner.
• HAVELOCK
  A light cloth covering for the head and neck, used by soldiers as a protection from sunstroke.
• HEARTGRIEF
  Heartache; sorrow. Milton.
• COMPOSURE
  1. The act of composing, or that which is composed; a composition. Signor Pietro, who had an admirable way both of composure and teaching. Evelyn. 2. Orderly adjustment; disposition. Various composures and combinations of these corpuscles.
• COMPOSSIBLE
  Able to exist with another thing; consistent. Chillingworth.
• HEARTEN
  1. To encourage; to animate; to incite or stimulate the courage of; to embolden. Hearten those that fight in your defense. Shak. 2. To restore fertility or strength to, as to land.
• HOLLOW-HEARTED
  Insincere; deceitful; not sound and true; having a cavity or decayed spot within. Syn. -- Faithless; dishonest; false; treacherous.
• INDECOMPOSABLENESS
  Incapableness of decomposition; stability; permanence; durability.
• MESEEMS
  It seems to me.
• WHITE-HEART
  A somewhat heart-shaped cherry with a whitish skin.
• SWEETHEART
  A lover of mistress.
• REINFORCEMENT
  See REëNFORCEMENT
• CANDLE POWER
  Illuminating power, as of a lamp, or gas flame, reckoned in terms of the light of a standard candle.
• SUBCONTRACTOR
  One who takes a portion of a contract, as for work, from the principal contractor.
• GREAT-HEARTED
  1. High-spirited; fearless. Clarendon. 2. Generous; magnanimous; noble.
• DEFORCEOR
  See DEFORCIANT
• DECOMPOSE
  To separate the constituent parts of; to resolve into original elements; to set free from previously existing forms of chemical combination; to bring to dissolution; to rot or decay.
• INTENDENT
  See N