contain

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English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To hold inside.
    • Template:RQ:WBsnt IvryGt
    • 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.
    • 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 constraint upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.
    I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself!
    • (Can we date this quote by Edmund Spenser and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      The king's person contains the unruly people from evil occasions.
    • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act INDUCTION, scene i]:
      Fear not, my lord: we can contain ourselves.
    • Template:RQ:WBsnt IvryGt
  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.
    • Bible, 1 Corinthians vii. 9.
      But if they can not contain, let them marry.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Translations

to contain — see hold
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Anagrams

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