Con*tract"ile (?), a. [Cf. F. contractile.]
tending to contract; having the power or property of contracting, or of shrinking into shorter or smaller dimensions; as, the contractile tissues.
The heart's contractile force.
H. Brooke.
Each cilium seems to be composed of contractile substance.
Hixley.
Contractile vacuole Zool., a pulsating cavity in the interior of a protozoan, supposed to be excretory in function. There may be one, two, or more.
© Webster 1913.