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Webster 1913 Edition

Adj.

[Cf. F.

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

(Zool.)

a pulsating cavity in the interior of a protozoan, supposed to be excretory in function. There may be one, two, or more.

Adj.

Tending to contract; having the power of shortening or of drawing into smaller dimensions; as the contractile force of certain elastic bodies.