Part 519

2. Goods or merchandise the importation or exportation of which is forbidden.

3. A negro slave, during the Civil War, escaped to, or was brought within, the Union lines. Such slave was considered contraband of war. [U.S.]

Contraband of war, that which, according to international law, cannot be supplied to a hostile belligerent except at the risk of seizure and condemnation by the aggrieved belligerent. Wharton.

Con"tra*band, a. Prohibited or excluded by law or treaty; forbidden; as, contraband goods, or trade.

The contraband will always keep pace, in some measure, with the fair trade. Burke.

Con"tra*band, v. t. 1. To import illegally, as prohibited goods; to smuggle. [Obs.] Johnson.

2. To declare prohibited; to forbid. [Obs.]

The law severly contrabands Our taking business of men's hands. Hudibras.

Con"tra*band*ism (-&ibreve;z'm), n. Traffic in contraband goods; smuggling.

Con"tra*band`ist (?), n. One who traffics illegally; a smuggler.

Con`tra*bass" (?), n. (Mus.) Double bass; -- applied to any instrument of the same deep range as the stringed double bass; as, the contrabass ophicleide; the contrabass tuba or bombardon.

Con`tra*bas"so (?), n. [It. contrabasso.] (Mus.) The largest kind of bass viol. See Violone.

Con*tract" (k&obreve;n*trăkt"), v. t. [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, n.] 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.

Con*tract" (k&obreve;n*trăkt"), v. i. 1. To be drawn together so as to be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet.

Years contracting to a moment. Wordsworth.