adjective. Capable of contracting or causing contraction.

Susceptible of contraction; having the property of contracting or shrinking into a smaller compass or length: as, contractile muscles or fibers. Producing contraction; capable of shortening or making smaller.

Specifically In entomology, capable of being doubled in close to the lower surface of the thorax, and fitting into grooves so as to be hardly distinguishable from the general surface: said of the legs, etc., of insects.

adjective. tending to contract; having the power or property of contracting, or of shrinking into shorter or smaller dimensions.

adjective. a pulsating cavity in the interior of a protozoan, supposed to be excretory in function. There may be one, two, or more.

adjective. Capable of contracting, or of being contracted.

adjective. capable of contracting or being contracted

"The protoplasm is more or less extensively excavated by fluid spaces, vacuoles; one clearer circular space or vacuole, which is invariably present, appears at intervals, enlarges gradually, and then vanishes abruptly, to reappear after a brief interval; this is called the contractile vacuole (c.v.)."

contractile vacuole  

contracted  

contractile ring  contractile vacuole  

acute-phase  aramid  beta-cell  fast-twitch  germinal