contact
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Etymology
From Latin contactus, from contingō (“I touch on all sides”), from tangō (“I touch”). Used in English since the 17th century.
Pronunciation
- (noun):
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkɑntækt/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒntækt/
- (verb):
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkɑntækt/, /kənˈtækt/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒntækt/, /kənˈtækt/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ækt
Noun
contact (countable and uncountable, plural contacts)
- The act of touching physically; being in close association.
- 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:
- She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.
- The establishment of communication (with).
- I haven't been in contact with her for years.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- In the old days, […] he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.
- The situation of being within sight of something; visual contact.
- 1983, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Government Activities and Transportation Subcommittee, Hazardous Obstructions at San Francisco Airport, page 126:
- If the pilot […] cannot establish visual contact with the ground, he must immediately execute a missed-approach procedure […]
- A nodule designed to connect a device with something else.
- Touch the contact to ground and read the number again.
- Someone who can be contacted, or with whom one is in communication.
- (by extension) Means of communication with a person, especially in the form of a telephone number.
- Who is the company's contact for sales queries?
- The salesperson had a whole binder full of contacts for potential clients.
- (informal) A contact lens.
- (electricity) A device designed for repetitive connections.
- (informal, by ellipsis) Contact juggling.
- I bought myself a new contact ball last week
- (mining) The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock.[1]
Derived terms
- anticontact
- body contact
- circle contact lens
- contactable
- contact ball
- contact binary
- contact call
- contact card
- contact details
- contact explosive
- contact-free
- contact geometry
- contact high
- contact hitter
- contactin
- contact inhibition
- contactization
- contact language
- contact lens
- contactless
- contact level
- contact linguistics
- contact manifold
- contact metamorphism
- contact number
- contact person
- contact print
- contact process
- contact shoe
- contact shot
- contact sport
- contact time
- contact trace, contact-trace
- contact tracer
- contact tracing, contact-tracing
- contactual
- contact wire
- contact wound
- coontact
- cross-contact
- electrical contact
- eye contact
- first contact
- fourth contact
- fourth point of contact
- golden contact
- intercontact
- language contact
- line of contact
- make contact with
- microcontact
- multicontact
- nanocontact
- no battle plan survives contact with the enemy
- no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy
- non-contact, noncontact
- no plan survives contact with the enemy
- no plan survives first contact with the enemy
- on contact
- overcontact
- paleocontact
- paracontact
- patient contact
- point of contact / POC
- postcontact
- precontact
- pseudocontact
- rolling contact
- second contact
- semicontact
- tactical contact
- thermal contact
- third contact
- untact
Related terms
Translations
an act of touching physically
|
an establishment of communication
|
colloquial: a contact lens — see also contact lens
|
electrical: a device designed for repetitive connections
|
someone with whom one is in communication
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb
contact (third-person singular simple present contacts, present participle contacting, simple past and past participle contacted)
- (transitive, occasionally proscribed) To touch; to come into physical contact with.
- The side of the car contacted the pedestrian.
- (transitive, occasionally proscribed) To establish communication with (something or someone).
- I am trying to contact my sister.
Usage notes
- The use of contact as a verb is occasionally discountenanced. Nonetheless, its usefulness and popularity have – at least to some extent – worn down resistance.
Derived terms
Translations
touch physically
|
establish communication with
|
References
- Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond (1881) “Contact”, in A Glossary of Mining and Metallurgical Terms. […], Easton, Pa.: [American] Institute [of Mining Engineers], […], →OCLC.
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