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contain

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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    From Middle English, borrowed from Old French contenir, from Latin continēre (“to hold or keep together, comprise, contain”), combined form of con- (“together”) + teneō (“to hold”).

    Pronunciation

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    • enPR: kən-tānʹ, IPA(key): /kənˈteɪn/
    • Audio (Canada):(file)
    • Rhymes: -eɪn
    • Hyphenation: con‧tain

    Verb

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    contain (third-person singular simple present contains, present participle containing, simple past and past participle contained)

    1. (transitive) To hold inside.
      The brown box contains three stacks of books.
      a spray bottle containing water.
      • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
        At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
      • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
        [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].
    2. (transitive) To include as a part.
      Most of the meals they offer contain meat.
      • 2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884:
        Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.
    3. (transitive) To put constraints upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.
      I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself!
    4. (mathematics, of a set etc., transitive) To have as an element or subset.
      A group contains a unique inverse for each of its elements.
      If that subgraph contains the vertex in question then it must be spanning.
    5. (obsolete, intransitive) To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.

    Usage notes

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    Synonyms

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    Antonyms

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    Derived terms

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    Translations

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    Further reading

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    Anagrams

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