tract

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“
But as his tract is a professed answer to charges of cruelty and oppression, he affirms that both practices were then disused, and that they had not of late been resorted to The boast of the English nation is a manly independence and common-sense, which will not long permit the license of tyranny or oppression on the meanest and most obscure sufferers.

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Definitions (58)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun An expanse of land or water.
  2. noun A specified or limited area of land: developing a 30-acre tract.
  3. noun Anatomy A system of organs and tissues that together perform a specialized function: the alimentary tract.
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Examples (50)

  • Through faith he rises above himself in God, from God he descends again below himself through love; and yet remains always in God and in godlike love This tract was a remarkable pendant to Luther's remarkable letter to the Pope. —  Life of Luther
  • This tract was a reply, in form, to a publication of Archbishop Usher. —  Milton
  • The only matter really discussed in the pages of the tract is the limit of toleration. —  Milton
  • The tract was written by the Russian secret police in 1903 and was translated into a multitude of languages; international sales of the tract were astronomical during the 1920s and 1930s. —  Torrentreactor.Net
  • London 1710, 4to This tract is a little earlier than the great epoch of such publications (1714), and professes to find the longitude by the observed altitudes of the moon and two stars. —  A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I (of II)
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

expanse ·  region ·  pamphlet ·  valley ·  portion ·  ridge ·  patch ·  wilderness ·  poem ·  waste ·  territory ·  treatise

Used in the same contextWord Family

tract:   tracts
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (8)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. Middle English, period of time, from Latin tractus, course, space, period of time, from past participle of trahere, to draw.
  2. Middle English tracte, treatise, probably short for Latin tractātus, from past participle of tractāre, to discuss, frequentative of trahere, to draw.
  3. Middle English tracte, from Medieval Latin tractus, from Latin, a drawing out (from its being an uninterrupted solo); see tract1.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. from Latin tractus, past participle of trahere, draw, carry off, draw out, protract, delay, retard; prob. not connected with English draw, drag. Hence ult. (from Latin trahere) English tract, n., with its doublets trait, trace, etc., tract, tract, etc., attract, contract, detract, etc., extray, portray, treat, treatise, treaty, tractate, tractable, etc., attrahent, contrahent, subtrahend, etc., trace, track, etc. The verb tract, with the noun, has been more or less confused in some senses with track and track.
  2. Early modern English tracte; from Latin tractus, a drawing, train, extent, a district, extent of time, in genitive extension, length, Middle Latin a treating, handling, doing, business, commerce, a song, etc., in a great variety of uses; from trahere, past participle tractus, draw: see tract, v. From the same Latin noun are also ult. English trait and trace.
  3. from Latin tractare, handle, treat, freq. of trahere, draw: see treat, and cf. tract.
  4. from Middle Latin tractus, a treating, handling, etc., an anthem, particular uses of Latin tractus, a drawing: see tract, and cf. tractate.
  5. An erroneous form of track, simulating tract.
 

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/trækt/
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