What does "contain" mean?
Contain: When that this body did contain a spirit. Shak. What thy stores contain bring forth. Milton.
Additional senses
- 2.To have capacity for; to be able to hold; to hold; to be equivalent to; as, a bushel contains four pecks.
- 3.To put constraint upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds. [Obs., exept as used reflexively.] The king's person contains the unruly people from evil occasions. Spenser. Fear not, my lord: we can contain ourselves. Shak.
- 4.To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity. But if they can not contain, let them marry. 1 Cor. vii. 9.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00