contact meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

contact

noun

US /ˈkɑntækt/ · UK /ˈkɒntækt/

Etymology From Latin contactus, from contingō (“to touch on all sides”), from tangō (“to touch”). Used in English since the 17th century.

10 senses

The act of touching physically; being in close association.

She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

The establishment of communication (with).

I haven't been in contact with her for years.
In the old days, […] he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

1 more example

When written information is unavailable and archeological findings are subject to conflicting interpretations, language data frequently provide the only evidence for prehistoric ethnic and cultural contacts.1989 January 23, Werner Winter, “On a new claim concerning substratum influence upon Tocharian”, in Central Asiatic Journal, volume 33, number 1/2, Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISSN, page 126:

The situation of being within sight of something; visual contact.

If the pilot […] cannot establish visual contact with the ground, he must immediately execute a missed-approach procedure […]1983, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Government Activities and Transportation Subcommittee, Hazardous Obstructions at San Francisco Airport, page 126:

A nodule designed to connect a device with something else.

Someone who can be contacted, or with whom one is in communication.

Broadly A means of communication with a person, especially in the form of a telephone number.

Informal A contact lens.

Business, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics A device designed for repetitive connections.

Informal Contact juggling.

Business, Mining The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock.

Derived terms: 86 terms
anticontact, body contact, circle contact lens, contactable, contact ball, contact binary, contact call, contact card, contact details, contact experience, contact explosive, contact-free, contact geometry, contact high, contact hitter, contactin, contact inhibition, contactization, contact language, contact lens, contactless, contact level, contact line, contact linguistics, contact manifold, contact metamorphism, contact nap, contact number, contact person, contact print, contact printing, contact process, contact sheet, contact shoe, contact shot, contact sport, contact time, contact trace, contact-trace, contact tracer, contact tracing, contact-tracing, contactual, contact wire, contact wound, coontact, cross-contact, direct client contact, electrical contact, eye contact, first contact, fourth contact, fourth point of contact, golden contact, intercontact, language contact, letterbox contact, line of contact, make contact with, microcontact, multicontact, nanocontact, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy, no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, non-contact, noncontact, no plan survives contact with the enemy, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, on contact, overcontact, paleocontact, paracontact, patient contact, point of contact, POC, postcontact, precontact, pseudocontact, rolling contact, second contact, semicontact, slow contact, tactical contact, thermal contact, third contact, untact

verb

US /kənˈtækt/ · UK /kənˈtækt/

Etymology From Latin contactus, from contingō (“to touch on all sides”), from tangō (“to touch”). Used in English since the 17th century.

To touch; to come into physical contact with.

To establish communication with (something or someone).

Derived terms: contactee, contactor, noncontacted, noncontacting, recontact, supercontacting, uncontacted