contact

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A coming together or touching, as of objects or surfaces.
• noun The state or condition of touching or of immediate proximity.
• noun Connection or interaction; communication.
• noun Visual observation.
• noun Association; relationship.
• noun A person who might be of use; a connection.
• noun A connection between two conductors that permits a flow of current or heat.
• noun A part or device that makes or breaks such a connection.
• noun Medicine A person recently exposed to a contagious disease, usually through close association with an infected individual.
• noun A contact lens.
• intransitive verb To get in touch with; communicate with.
• intransitive verb To come into contact with.
• intransitive verb To make contact with; touch or strike.
• intransitive verb To be in or come into contact.
• adjective Of, sustaining, or making contact.
• adjective Caused or transmitted by touching.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To be together or in contact; touch; abut.
• noun A touching; touch; the coincidence of one or more points on the surface of each of two bodies without interpenetration of the bodies; apposition of separate bodies or points without sensible intervening space.
• noun Specifically, in mathematics, coincidence, as of two curves, in two or more consecutive points; the having a point and the tangent plane at that point in common.
• noun The act of making one body abut against another; the bringing together so as to touch.
• noun in mathematics, coincidence of n + 1 consecutive points.
• noun In geology, the surface of juncture, specifically of an igneous intrusion and its containing-walls, along which mineralogical and structural changes, and especially ore-deposits, are often developed; also applied to the surface of juncture of any two contrasted rocks.
• noun In anthropology, the meeting of tribes or peoples of different culture, particularly that of a primitive tribe with the trade and influence of a superior people.
• noun In psychology: A light pressure upon the skin; a low degree of intensity of the adequate stimulus of the pressure-spots.
• noun A weak sensation of pressure. Some psychologists regard the sensation of contact as qualitatively different from the sensation of pressure. In all probability, however, the two are simply degrees of one and the same sensible quality.
• noun sensitized paper used for contact-printing.
• noun The sensations aroused by pressure of one part of the skin upon another.
• noun The twofold sensation (pressure followed by pain) which arises when the skin, for example, of the wrist is tapped with the point of a needle whose shaft is held loosely between the finger and thumb of the other hand.
• noun A method of making an electric are pass between terminals by interrupting an electric circuit, the contact points passing over each other with a sliding or wiping contact. The are terminals are kept free of oxid or deposit, because the surfaces are cleansed by the sliding action.
• noun One who has boon exposed to an infectious disease by contact or near association with a person suffering from it.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A close union or junction of bodies; a touching or meeting.
• noun (Geom.) The property of two curves, or surfaces, which meet, and at the point of meeting have a common direction.
• noun (Mining) The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock.
• noun (Electricity) A metallic conducting component of an electrical device connected to a circuit within and so situated that it may form a conducting pathway to an external power source or device when contacted by another conductor.
• noun A person who serves to commmunicate information to or from one group to another, whether formally or informally.
• noun a delicate level so pivoted as to tilt when two parts of a measuring apparatus come into contact with each other; -- used in precise determinations of lengths and in the accurate graduation of instruments.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The act of touching physically.
• noun The establishment of communication (with).
• noun A nodule designed to connect a device with something else.
• noun Someone with whom one is in communication.
• noun informal A contact lens.
• noun electricity a device designed for repetitive connections.
• noun informal, by ellipsis Contact juggling.
• verb transitive To touch; to come into physical contact with.
• verb transitive To establish communication with something or someone

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the state or condition of touching or of being in immediate proximity