different between stretching vs contraction

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?st??t???/
• Rhymes: -?t???
• Hyphenation: stretch?ing

Etymology 1

From Middle English strecching, strecchinge, equivalent to stretch +? -ing.

Noun

stretching (countable and uncountable, plural stretchings)

1. The act by which something is stretched.
2. A form of physical exercise in which a specific skeletal muscle (or muscle group) is deliberately elongated to its fullest length in order to improve the muscle's felt elasticity and reaffirm comfortable muscle tone.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English strecchinge, strecchynge, from Old English stre??ende, from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjand?, present participle of *strakkjan (“to stretch”), equivalent to stretch +? -ing.

Adjective

stretching (comparative more stretching, superlative most stretching)

1. Requiring a high level of effort or performance.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:stretching.

Verb

stretching

1. present participle of stretch

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English stretching.

Noun

stretching m (uncountable)

1. stretching

Further reading

• stretching in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French contraction, from Latin contracti?. Equivalent to contract +? -ion

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /k?n?t?æk.??n/, /k?n?t?æk.??n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /k?n?t?æk.??n/
• Rhymes: -æk??n

Noun

contraction (countable and uncountable, plural contractions)

1. A reversible reduction in size.
2. (economics) A period of economic decline or negative growth.

   The country's economic contraction was caused by high oil prices.

3. (biology) A shortening of a muscle during its use.
4. (medicine) A strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.
5. (linguistics) A process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme (a word) are lost or reduced, such that it becomes a bound morpheme (a clitic) that attaches phonologically to an adjacent word.

   In English didn't, that's, and wanna, the endings -n't, -'s, and -a arose by contraction.

6. (English orthography) A word with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe, usually resulting from the above process.

   "Don't" is a contraction of "do not."

7. A shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity.
8. (medicine) The process of contracting a disease.
9. (phonetics) Syncope, the loss of sounds from within a word.
10. The acquisition of something, generally negative.

    Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.

11. (medicine) A distinct stage of wound healing, wherein the wound edges are gradually pulled together.

Antonyms

• expansion
• dilatation

Derived terms

Related terms

• contract
• contractation
• contractive
• haustral contraction

Translations

See also

• omission
• Category:English contractions
• contraction on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin contractio, contractionem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.t?ak.sj??/

Noun

contraction f (plural contractions)

1. contraction

Related terms

• contracter
• contrat