tract

• IPA^(key): /tɹækt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: tracked
• Rhymes: -ækt

From Middle English tract, tracte, traht (“a treatise, exposition, commentary”), from Old English traht, tract (“a treatise, exposition, commentary, text, passage”); and also from Middle English tract, tracte (“an expanse of space or time”); both from Latin tractus (“a haul, drawing, a drawing out”), the perfect passive participle of trahō. Doublet of trait.

tract (plural tracts)

1. An area or expanse.

   an unexplored tract of sea

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     the deep tract of hell

   • 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 1051505315:

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

   • a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, OCLC 418859860:

     small tracks of ground

2. (anatomy) A series of connected body organs, such as the digestive tract.
3. A small booklet such as a pamphlet, often for promotional or informational uses.
4. A brief treatise or discourse on a subject.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, The Presbyterians Plea of Merit

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

5. A commentator's view or perspective on a subject.
6. Continued or protracted duration, length, extent
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     improved by tract of time

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. XIV, Henry of Essex”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, OCLC 191225086, book II (The Ancient Monk):

     Nay, in another case of litigation, the unjust Standard bearer, for his own profit, asserting that the cause belonged not to St. Edmund’s Court, but to his in Lailand Hundred, involved us in travellings and innumerable expenses, vexing the servants of St. Edmund for a long tract of time […]

7. (Roman Catholicism) Part of the proper of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, used instead of the alleluia during Lenten or pre-Lenten seasons, in a Requiem Mass, and on a few other penitential occasions.
8. (obsolete) Continuity or extension of anything.
   • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech

     in tract of speech

9. (obsolete) Traits; features; lineaments.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Simulation and Dissimulation”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, OCLC 863521290:

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

10. (obsolete) The footprint of a wild animal.
    • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “Book 13”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 731548838:

      The Prophet Telemus […] mark'd the Tracts of every Bird that flew

11. (obsolete) Track; trace.
    • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], OCLC 152706203:

      Efface all tract of its traduction.

    • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

      But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, / Leaving no tract behind.

12. (obsolete) Treatment; exposition.
    • 1613, William Shakespeare; [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:

      The tract of every thing Would, by a good discourser, lose some life Which action's self was tongue to.

• (series of connected body organs): system

From Latin tractus, the participle stem of trahere (“to pull, drag”).

tract (third-person singular simple present tracts, present participle tracting, simple past and past participle tracted)

1. (obsolete) To pursue, follow; to track.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     Where may that treachour then (said he) be found, / Or by what meanes may I his footing tract?

2. (obsolete) To draw out; to protract.
   • 1616, Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Of The Art of Poetry”, in The Workes of Ben Jonson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, OCLC 960101342:

     Speak to me , muse , the man , who after Troy was sack'd , Saw many towns and men , and could their manners tract.

• T-cart

Borrowed from English tract.

• IPA^(key): /tʁakt/

tract m (plural tracts)

1. flyer, circular, pamphlet

• tracter

• “tract”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.