contractileadj.

1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Contractile, a Term made use of by some Physicians, to express such Muscles, and other Parts of the Body as are contracted.

1793 T. Beddoes Observ. Nature & Cure Calculus 171 The irritable or contractile, improperly called the muscular fibre.

1844 W. B. Carpenter Animal Physiol. i. 19 The contractile tissues, by which the movements of plants are produced.

1872 T. H. Huxley Lessons Elem. Physiol. (ed. 6) ii. 40 The substance of the heart is contractile.

1877 T. H. Huxley Man. Anat. Invertebrated Animals ii. 76 The name of contractile vacuoles is given to spaces in the protoplasm [of Protozoa], which slowly become filled with a clear watery fluid, and, when they have attained a certain size, are suddenly obliterated by the coming together, on all sides, of the protoplasm in which they lie.

1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 266/1 In the protoplasm contractile vacuoles similar to those of lower animals have been occasionally detected.

1959 J. Clegg Freshwater Life Brit. Isles (ed. 2) ii. 29 Simple single-celled creatures, such as Amoeba and Paramecium, usually have large expandable bubbles or spaces in the midst of the protoplasm called contractile vacuoles, in which excess water collects and whence it is then conducted out of the creature.

1725 N. Robinson New Theory of Physick 66 Those Vessels compos'd of Fibres that have a Contractile and Distractile Power.

1739 E. Carter tr. F. Algarotti Sir I. Newton's Philos. Explain'd II. vi. 187 Involving it in his contractile and expansive Forces.

1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. I. 603/1 The contractile action takes place in every direction.

1873 W. Lees Acoustics iii. i. 82 The enormous contractile force of iron.