Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Contain

Con·tain′ (kŏn·tān′), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Contained; p. pr. & vb. n. Containing.] [OE. contenen, conteinen, F. contenir, fr. L. continere, -tentum; con- + tenere to hold. See Tenable, and cf. Countenance.] 1. To hold within fixed limits; to comprise; to include; to inclose; to hold.

Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can not contain thee; how much less this house! 2 Chron. vi. 18.

When that this body did contain a spirit. Shak.

What thy stores contain bring forth. Milton.

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.

Con·tain′, v. i. To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.

But if they can not contain, let them marry. 1 Cor. vii. 9.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.