contracture

[ kuhn-trak-cher ]

nounPathology.
  1. a shortening or distortion of muscular or connective tissue due to spasm, scar, or paralysis of the antagonist of the contracting muscle.

Origin of contracture

1
1650–60; <Latin contractūra, equivalent to contract(us) drawn together (past participle of contrahere;see contract) + -ūra-ure

Other words from contracture

  • con·trac·tured, adjective

Words Nearby contracture

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use contracture in a sentence

  • The man was more confused than usual, and contractures had stiffened his thin legs into tent poles.

    The Broken Front Line | by Ava Kofman, photography by Kendrick Brinson and David Walter Banks | April 7, 2021 | ProPublica
  • A contracture is then developed, and it may be transferred to the opposite limb by the approach of a magnet.

  • The secondary changes in joints which are the seat of paralytic contracture are considered with the surgery of the Extremities.

    Manual of Surgery | Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles
  • The suspension of this tonic tic by volitional effort accentuates its distinction from contracture.

  • In his opinion, the eye mobility negatived any idea of contracture consequent on central lesions.

  • Their characteristic feature is the fact of the contracture being voluntary in origin.

British Dictionary definitions for contracture

contracture

/ (kənˈtræktʃə) /


noun
  1. a disorder in which a skeletal muscle is permanently tightened (contracted), most often caused by spasm or paralysis of the antagonist muscle that maintains normal muscle tension

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012