conterminant 
Suburban and conterminant fabrickes. 
Howell, Vocall Forrest. 
If haply your dates of life were conterminant. 
Lamb, Elia. 
conterminate (kon-ter'mi-nat), a. [< LL. con- 
tcrminatus, pp. of eonterminare (> It. contcrmi- 
nare), border on, < L. com-, together, + termi- 
nus, a border: see terminate.'] Same as conter- 
minous. 
A strength of empire fixed 
Conterminate with heaven. 
B. Jonson, Prince Henry's Barriers. 
Conterminous (kon-ter'mi-nus), a. [= Sp. Pg. 
It. contermino, < L. conterminus, bordering upon, 
< com-, together, + terminus, a border : see ter- 
minate, conterminate.'} 1. Having the same 
limit; bordering; touching at the boundary; 
contiguous. 
This eouforraed so many of them as were conterminous 
to the colonies and garrisons to the Roman laws. 
Sir M. Hale. 
Because speculation is conterminous at one side with 
metempirics, it has frequently been carried by its ardor 
over its own lawful boundaries into that nebulous region 
where all tests fail. 
O. II. Lewes, Probs. of Life and Mind, I. i. 47. 
Canaan, Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia taken in its wid- 
est use are in a certain sense conterminowi, and form the 
southern boundary of the world as known to the Hebrews. 
G. liamlinson, Origin of Nations, p. 197. 
2. Having the same borders or limits, and hence 
of the same extent or size ; of equal extension. 
Our English alphabet is a member of that great Latin 
family of alphabets whose geographical extension was ori- 
ginally conterminous, or nearly so, with the limits of the 
Western Empire. Isaac Taylor, The Alphabet, I. 71. 
3. In eool., having the game limitation or def- 
inition: said of classificatory groups. Thus, a 
genus which is the only one of a family is conterminous 
with it ; the modern group Ichthyopsida is conterminous 
with the two classes Pisces and Amphibia. Also conter- 
minate. 
As applied by Linnaeus, the name cactus is almost con- 
terminous with what is now regarded as the natural order 
Cactaceaj, which embraces several modern genera. 
Encyc. Brit., IV. 625. 
Also coterminous. 
conterraneant (kon-te-ra'ne-an), a. [As con- 
terrane-ous + -.] Conterraneous. 
If women were not conterranean and mingled with men, 
angels would descend and dwell among us. 
Quoted in llowell's Letters, iv. 7. 
conterraneoust (kon-te-ra'ne-us), a. [= Sp. 
Pg. It. conterraneo, < L. coiiterraneus, < com-, to- 
gether, + terra, earth, country.] Of the same 
earth or world or country. 
COntesset, . An obsolete form of countess 1 . 
contesserationt (kon-tes-e-ra'shqn), n. [< LL. 
contesseratio(n-), contracting of* friendship, < 
contesserare, pp. contesscratus, contract friend- 
ship by means of square tablets, which were 
divided by the friends in order that in after 
times they or their descendants might recog- 
nize each other, < L. com-, together, + tessera, 
a tablet: see tessera.~\ A harmonious assem- 
blage or collection ; a friendly union. 
The holy symbols of the eucharist were intended to be a 
contesseration and an union of Christian societies to God 
and with one another. Jer. Taylor, Real Presence, 1. 
contest (kou-tesf), v. [< F. contester, contest, 
dispute, = Sp. Pg. contestar = It. contestare, 
notify, refer a cause, < L. contestari, call to wit- 
ness, bring an action (ML. contestare litem, con- 
test a case), < com-, together, + testari, bear 
witness, < testis, a witness : see test 3 .'] I. trans. 
1. To make a subject of emulation, contention, 
or dispute ; enter into a competition for ; com- 
pete or strive for : as, to contest a prize; to con- 
test an election (see contested). 
Homer is universally allowed to have had the greatest 
Invention of any writer whatever. The praise of judg- 
ment Virgil has justly contested with him. Pope. 
2. To contend or strive for in arms; fight or 
do battle for; strive to win or hold; struggle 
to defend: as, the troops contested every inch of 
ground. 
The matter was contested by single combat. 
Bacon, Political Fables, ix. 
West-Saxon Ceawlin, like Hebrew Joshua, went on from 
kingdom to kingdom, from city to city. As he did unto 
Cirencester and her king, so did he unto Gloucester and 
her king. But every step was well contested. 
E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 128. 
3. To argue in opposition to ; controvert ; liti- 
gate ; oppose ; call in question ; challenge ; dis- 
Eute: as, the advocate contested every point; 
is right to the property was contested in the 
courts. 
"Cogito ergo sum." Few philosophical aphorisms have 
been more frequently repeated, few more contested than 
this, and few assuredly have been so little understood by 
1226 
those who have held up its supposed fallacy to the great- 
est ridicule. J. V. Morell. 
The originality and power of this [the dramatic litera- 
ture of the period] as a mirror of life cannot be contested. 
Whipple, Ess. and Rev., II. 13. 
= Syn. 3. To debate, challenge. 
n. iittrans. 1. To strive; contend; dispute: 
followed by with. 
The difficulty of an argument adds to the pleasure of 
contesting with it, when there are hopes of victory. 
Up. Burnet. 
2. To vie ; strive in rivalry. 
I ... do contest 
As hotly and as nobly with thy love, 
As ever in ambitious strength I did 
Contend against thy valour. Shak., Cor., iv. 5. 
Man who dares in pomp with Jove contest. 
Pope, Odyssey. 
contest (kon'test), n. [(contest, v.~] 1. Strife; 
struggle for victory or superiority, or ill de- 
fense ; a struggle in arms. 
What dire offence from amorous causes springs, 
What mighty contests rise from trivial things ! 
Pope, K. of the L., i. 1. 
The late battle had, in effect, been a contest between 
one usurper and another. llallam. 
2. Dispute ; debate ; controversy ; strife in ar- 
gument; disagreement. 
Leave all noisy contests, all immodest clamours and 
brawling language. Watts. 
Great contest follows, and much learned dust 
Involves the combatants ; each claiming truth, 
And truth disclaiming both. 
Cowper, The Task, iii. 161. 
= Syn. 1. Conflict, Combat, etc. (see battle!), encounter. 
See strife. 2. Altercation; dissension; quarrel. 
COntestable (kon-tes'ta-bl), a. [< F. contestable 
(= Sp. contestable = Pg. contestavel), < contester, 
contest : see contest and -able."] That may be 
disputed or debated ; disputable ; controverti- 
ble. [Rare.] 
contestableness (kon-tes'ta-bl-nes), n. Pos- 
sibility of being contested. [Rare.] 
contestant (kou-tes'tant), n. [< F. contestant 
= Pg. It. coniestante, < L. contestants, ppr. 
of contestari, call to witness, etc. : see contest, 
!).] One who contests ; a disputant ; a litigant : 
commonly used of one who contests the result 
of an election, or the proceeding for probate of 
a will. 
contestation (kon-tes-ta'shon), n. [= F. con- 
testation = Sp. contestacion = Pg. contestacao 
= It. contestazlone, < L. contestatio(n-), an ear- 
nest entreaty, an attesting, LL. entering of a 
suit, < contestari, pp. contestatm, call to wit- 
ness, etc.: see contest, t'.] If. The aet of con- 
testing or striving to gain or overcome ; con- 
test ; emulation, competition, or rivalry. 
Never contention rise in cither's breast, 
But contestation whose love shall be best. 
Beau, and FL, Four Plays in One. 
There is no act in all the errand of Gods Ministers to 
man-kind, wherein passes more loverlike contetftation be- 
tweene Christ and the Soule of a regenerate man lapsing, 
then before, and in, and after the Sentence of Excommu- 
nication. Milton, Reformation in Eng., ii. 
2f. Strife; dispute. 
His domestical Troubles were only by Earl Godwyn and 
his Sons, who yet after many Contestations and Affronts 
were reconciled, and Godwyn received again into as great 
Favour as before. Baker, Chronicles, p. 18. 
After years spent in domestic . . . contestations, she 
found means to withdraw. Clarendon. 
Those . . . that are in perpetual contestation and close 
fightings with sin. Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1836), I. 90. 
3f. Joint testimony; proof by witnesses ; attes- 
tation. 
We as well are baptised into the name of the Holy Spirit 
as of the Father and Son : wherein is signified, and by a 
solemn contestation ratified, on the part of God, that those 
three joyned and confederated (as it were) are conspiringly 
propitious and favourable to us. Barrow, Works, II. xxxiv. 
4. In the Gallican liturgies, the Vere Dignum, 
or clause beginning "It is very meet, right, 
and our bounden duty," at the beginning of 
the eucharistic preface ; in a wider sense, the 
whole preface. 
contested (kon-tes'ted), p. a. [Pp. of contest, 
.] 1. Disputed. As applied to elections: (a) In 
Great Britain, involving a contest at the polls, more than 
one candidate having been nominated. 
In four out of the six contested wards the Land League 
candidates were rejected. 
London Daily Telegraph, Nov. 26, 1881. 
(fc) In the United States, involving a contest or dispute 
as regards the result of balloting, on the part of the un- 
successful candidate, before a court or a legislative body : 
called lu Great Britain a controverted election. 
2. Litigated : as, a contested case at law. 
contestingly (kon-tes'ting-li), adv. In a con- 
tending manner. 
contexture 
The more contestinyly they set their reason to explain 
them, the more intricate they, perhaps, will find them. 
W. Montayue, Devoute Essays. 
contestless (kon'test-les), a. [< contest + 
-less.] Not to be disputed; incontrovertible. 
[Rare.] 
Truth contestless. A. Hill. 
context (kon-teks'), *' * [< L- contexere, weave 
together, < com-, together, + texere, weave : see 
text. Cf. context, ?.] To weave together. 
Either by the plastic principle alone, or that and heat 
together, or by some other cause capable to cont.ex the 
matter, it is yet possible that the matter may be anew 
contriued into such bodies. Boyle, Works, II. 529. 
COntextt (kon-teksf), i\ t. [< L. contextus, pp. 
of contexere, join or weave together : see con- 
text] To knit together ; connect. 
If the subject be history or contexted fable, then I hold 
it better put in prose or blanks. Feltham, Resolves, i. 71. 
contextt (kon-teksf), a. [< L. contextus, pp. : 
see the verb".] Knit or woven together ; close ; 
firm. 
The coats . . . are context and callous. 
Derham, Physico-Theology, iv. 3. 
context (kon'tekst), n. [= F. contexte = Sp. 
Pg. contexto = It. contesto, < L. contextus, a 
joining together, connection, < contexere, pp. 
contextus, join or weave together: see contex, 
context, v.] If. Texture; specifically, the en- 
tire text or connected structure of a discourse 
or writing. 
The skillful gloss of her reflection 
But paints the context of thy coarse complexion. 
Quarles, Emblems, ii. 6. 
Being a point of so high wisdome and worth, how could 
it be but that we should find it in that book within whose 
sacred context all wisdome is infolded ? 
Milton, Church-Government, Pref. 
We should not forget that we have but stray fragments 
of talk, separated from the context of casual and unre- 
strained conversations. Selden, Table-Talk, Int., p. 9. 
2. Less properly, the parts of a writing or dis- 
course which precede or follow, and are directly 
connected with, some other part referred to or 
quoted. 
Caesar's object in giving the Crastinus episode seems to 
have been, judging from the immediate context, an illus- 
tration of the fiery zeal of his soldiers. 
Tram. Amer. Philol. Ass., XV. 46. 
contextual (kon-teks'tu-al), a. [< L. contextus, 
context (see context, n.")', + -al.~\ 1. Pertaining 
to or dealing with the context. 
So as to admit of a contextual examination. 
Tlie Congregationalist, March 12, 1885. 
The argument is not grammatical, but logical, and con- 
textual. Bibliotheca Sacra, XLIII. 715. 
2. Conforming to or literally agreeing with the 
text : as, a contextual quotation. 
contextually (kon-teks'tu-al-i), adv. Agreea- 
bly to the text; verbatim et literatim: as, an 
extract contextually quoted. 
contextural (kon-teks'tu-ral), a. [< contexture 
+ -?.] Pertaining to contexture. 
Contexture (kon-teks'tur), re. [=F. contexture 
= Sp. Pg. contextura = It. contestura, < ML. as if 
* contextura, < L. contextus, pp. of contexere, join 
together: see context, v. and ., and texture."] 
If. A weaving or joining, or the state of being 
woven or joined together. 
A perfect continuance or contexture of the thread of the 
narration. Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 126. 
2. The manner of interweaving several parts 
into one body; the disposition and union of the 
constituent parts of a thing with respect to one 
another ; composition of parts ; constitution ; 
complication. 
The first doctrine is touching the contexture or configu- 
ration of things. 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 161. 
Pray let's now rest ourselves in this sweet shady arbour, 
which nature herself has woven with her own fine fingers ; 
'tis such a contexture of woodbines, sweetbrier, jasmine, 
and myrtle. /. Walton, Complete Angler, p. 207. 
View his whole life ; 'tis nothing hut a cunning contex- 
ture of dark arts and unequitable subterfuges. 
Sterne, Tristram Shandy, ii. 17. 
Sella hung the slippers in the porch 
Of that broad rustic lodge, and all who passed 
Admired their fair contexture. Bryant, Sella. 
3f. Context. 
In a contexture, where one part does not always depend 
upon another, . . . there it is not always very probable 
to expound Scripture, and take its meaning by its propor- 
tion to the neighbouring words. 
././. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), II. 330. 
4. In Scots law, a mode of industrial accession, 
arising when material, as wool or yarn, belong- 
ing to one person is woven into cloth belong- 
ing to another, and is carried therewith as ac- 
