Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Tract

Tract (trăkt), n. [Abbrev.fr. tractate.] A written discourse or dissertation, generally of short extent; a short treatise, especially on practical religion.

The church clergy at that time writ the best collection of tracts against popery that ever appeared. Swift.

Tracts for the Times. See Tractarian.

Tract, n. [L. tractus a drawing, train, track, course, tract of land, from trahere tractum, to draw. Senses 4 and 5 are perhaps due to confusion with track. See Trace,v., and cf. Tratt.] 1. Something drawn out or extended; expanse. "The deep tract of hell." Milton.

2. A region or quantity of land or water, of indefinite extent; an area; as, an unexplored tract of sea.

A very high mountain joined to the mainland by a narrow tract of earth. Addison.

3. Traits; features; lineaments. [Obs.]

The discovery of a man's self by the tracts of his countenance is a great weakness. Bacon.

4. The footprint of a wild beast. [Obs.] Dryden.

5. Track; trace. [Obs.]

Efface all tract of its traduction. Sir T. Browne.

But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forthon, Leaving no tract behind. Shak.

6. Treatment; exposition. [Obs.] Shak.

7. Continuity or extension of anything; as, the tract of speech. [Obs.] Older.

8. Continued or protracted duration; length; extent. "Improved by tract of time." Milton.

9. (R. C. Ch.) Verses of Scripture sung at Mass, instead of the Alleluia, from Septuagesima Sunday till the Saturday befor Easter; — so called because sung tractim, or without a break, by one voice, instead of by many as in the antiphons.

Syn. — Region; district; quarter; essay; treatise; dissertation.

Tract, v. t. To trace out; to track; also, to draw out; to protact. [Obs.] Spenser. B. Jonson.

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 “?”.