/tɹækt/
OriginFrom Middle English tract, tracte, traht (“a treatise, exposition, commentary”), from Old English traht, tract (“a treatise, exposition, commentary, text, passage”); and also from Middle English tract, tracte (“an expanse of space or time”); both from Latin tractus (“a haul, drawing, a drawing out”), the perfect passive participle of trahō. Doublet of trait.
- An area or expanse.
“an unexplored tract of sea”
“the deep tract of hell”
“a very high mountain joined to the mainland by a narrow tract of earth”
- A series of connected body organs, such as the digestive tract.
- A small booklet such as a pamphlet, often for promotional or informational uses.
- A brief treatise or discourse on a subject.
“The church clergy at that writ the best collection of tracts against popery that ever appeared.”
- A commentator's view or perspective on a subject.
- Continued or protracted duration, length, extent
“improved by tract of time”
“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 travellin”
- 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.
- obsoleteContinuity or extension of anything.
- obsoleteTraits; features; lineaments.
“The discovery of a man's self by the tracts of his countenance is a great weakness.”
- obsoleteThe footprint of a wild animal.
“The Prophet Telemus […]mark'd the Tracts of every Bird that flew”
- obsoleteTrack; trace.
“Efface all tract of its traduction.”
“But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, / Leaving no tract behind.”
- obsoleteTreatment; exposition.
“The tract of every thing Would, by a good discourser, lose some life Which action's self was tongue to.”
- obsoleteTo pursue, follow; to track.
“Where may that treachour then (said he) be found, / Or by what meanes may I his footing tract?”
- obsoleteTo draw out; to protract.
“Speak to me , muse , the man , who after Troy was sack'd , Saw many towns and men , and could their manners tract.”
- obsolete, transitiveTo treat, discourse, negotiate.
Formstracts(plural) · tracts(present, singular, third-person) · tracting(participle, present) · tracted(participle, past) · tracted(past)