compact

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compact¹

  • /ˈkɒmˌpækt/ UK
  • /ˈkɑmˌpækt/ US
  • /kəmˈpækt/ UK, US
  • /kəmˈpækt/ UK
  • /kəmˈpækt/ US

Rhymes with (adjective, verb) -ækt

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Latin compactum (“agreement”).

noun compacts

  1. An agreement or contract. President Biden laid out an ambitious agenda on Wednesday night to rewrite the American social compact by vastly expanding family leave, child care, health care, preschool and college education for millions of people to be financed with increased taxes on the wealthiest earners.

verb compacts · compacting · compacted

  1. intransitive To form an agreement or contract. In return for the sovereign's protection, they compacted to police the content of public literature.

adjective

  1. archaic, not comparable Agreed, contracted. O Gorice XI., most glorious King of Witchland, and O Lord Goldry Bluszco, captain of the hosts of Demonland, it is compact betwixt you, and made fast by mighty oaths whereof I, the Red Foliot, am keeper, that ye shall wrastle three falls together on these conditions, […]

Similar: close, compact, crowded, dense, solid, thick, tight

compact²

  • /kəmˈpækt/ UK
  • /kəmˈpækt/ US
  • /ˈkɑmˌpækt/ US
  • /ˈkɒmˌpækt/ UK
  • /kəmˈpækt/ UK, US

Rhymes with (adjective, verb) -ækt

Where it comes from

From Middle French compact, from Latin compāctus, perfect passive participle of compingō (“join together”), from com- (“together”) + pangō (“fasten”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to attach, fix, fasten”).

adjective more compact · compacter · most compact · compactest

  1. Closely packed or densely constituted; having much material in a small volume. glass, crystal, gems, and other compact bodies
  2. Having all necessary features fitting neatly into a small space. a compact laptop computer
  3. Brief and pithy; not verbose. a compact discourse
  4. not comparable Such that every open cover has a finite subcover. In a metric space, this is equivalent to being sequentially compact. In metric spaces with the Heine-Borel property, this is equivalent to being closed and bounded.
  5. not comparable Compact in the above sense and moreover Hausdorff.
  6. obsolete Joined or held together; leagued; confederated. Thou fooliſh Frier, and thou pernicious woman / Compact with her that's gone:
  7. obsolete Composed or made; with of. A wandering fire, / Compact of unctuous vapor.

Similar: close, compact, crowded, dense, solid, thick, tight

noun compacts

  1. A slim folding case, often featuring a mirror, powder and a powder puff, small enough to fit in a woman's purse, handbag, or pocket.
  2. An automobile that is larger than a subcompact but smaller than an intermediate.
  3. A broadsheet newspaper published in the size of a tabloid but keeping its non-sensational style. The Dundee Courier has announced the newspaper will be relaunching as a compact later this week. Editor Richard Neville said a "brighter, bolder" paper would appear from Saturday, shrunk from broadsheet to tabloid size.

verb compacts · compacting · compacted

  1. transitive To make more dense; to compress. You need to excavate and remove the topsoil, line the subsoil with a geotextile, then lay and compact hardcore.
  2. To unite or connect firmly, as in a system. The whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth.

Similar: condense

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