tract

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English

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Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From tractate, from Latin tractatus, or borrowed from Latin tractus, the perfect passive participle of trahō. Doublet of trait.

Noun

tract (plural tracts)

  1. An area or expanse.
    an unexplored tract of sea
    • (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      the deep tract of hell
    • (Can we date this quote by Addison and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      a very high mountain joined to the mainland by a narrow tract of earth
  2. A series of connected body organs, as in the digestive tract.
  3. A small booklet such as a pamphlet, often for promotional or informational uses.
  4. A brief treatise or discourse on a subject.
    • (Can we date this quote by Jonathan Swift and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      The church clergy at that writ the best collection of tracts against popery that ever appeared.
  5. A commentator's view or perspective on a subject.
  6. Continued or protracted duration, length, extent
    • (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      improved by tract of time
    • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. XIV, Henry of Essex
      Nay, in another case of litigation, the unjust Standard bearer, for his own profit, asserting that the cause belonged not to St. Edmund’s Court, but to his in Lailand Hundred, involved us in travellings and innumerable expenses, vexing the servants of St. Edmund for a long tract of time […]
  7. Part of the proper of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, used instead of the alleluia during Lenten or pre-Lenten seasons, in a Requiem Mass, and on a few other penitential occasions.
  8. (obsolete) Continuity or extension of anything.
    the tract of speech
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Older to this entry?)
  9. (obsolete) Traits; features; lineaments.
    • (Can we date this quote by Francis Bacon and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      The discovery of a man's self by the tracts of his countenance is a great weakness.
  10. (obsolete) The footprint of a wild animal.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
  11. (obsolete) Track; trace.
    • (Can we date this quote by Sir Thomas Browne and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Efface all tract of its traduction.
    • (Can we date this quote by William Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, / Leaving no tract behind.
  12. (obsolete) Treatment; exposition.
    • 1613, William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Act I, Scene I
      The tract of every thing Would, by a good discourser, lose some life Which action's self was tongue to.
Synonyms
  • (series of connected body organs): system
etymologically related to trahere (“to pull”)
Translations
a series of connected body organs
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Etymology 2

From tractus, the participle stem of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin trahere.

Verb

tract (third-person singular simple present tracts, present participle tracting, simple past and past participle tracted)

  1. (obsolete) To pursue, follow; to track.
  2. (obsolete) To draw out; to protract.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Ben Jonson to this entry?)

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English tract.

Pronunciation

Noun

tract m (plural tracts)

  1. flyer, circular, pamphlet

Derived terms

Further reading

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