"contracting" in the noun sense
1. catching, contracting
becoming infected
"catching cold is sometimes unavoidable"
"the contracting of a serious illness can be financially catastrophic"
"contracting" in the verb sense
1. contract, undertake
enter into a contractual arrangement
2. sign, contract, sign on, sign up
engage by written agreement
"They signed two new pitchers for the next season"
3. compress, constrict, squeeze, compact, contract, press
squeeze or press together
"she compressed her lips"
"the spasm contracted the muscle"
4. contract, take, get
be stricken by an illness, fall victim to an illness
"He got AIDS"
"She came down with pneumonia"
"She took a chill"
5. shrink, contract
become smaller or draw together
"The fabric shrank"
"The balloon shrank"
6. contract
make smaller
"The heat contracted the woollen garment"
7. condense, concentrate, contract
compress or concentrate
"Congress condensed the three-year plan into a six-month plan"
8. narrow, contract
make or become more narrow or restricted
"The selection was narrowed"
"The road narrowed"
9. abridge, foreshorten, abbreviate, shorten, cut, contract, reduce
reduce in scope while retaining essential elements
"The manuscript must be shortened"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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