Also 5 construccion, -tioun. [ad. L. constrictiōn-em, n. of action f. constringĕre: see CONSTRINGE, CONSTRICT, CONSTRAIN. (In F. cited by Littré from Paré, 16th c.)]
1. Compressing or drawing together as by an encircling pressure; the condition of being so compressed together; compression, contraction.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 66. Þou schalt knowe it bi construccion [v.r. constructioun] & dilatacion of þe same arterie.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 641. The glottis … hath a double motion, one of dilatation another of constriction.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, viii. 192. The constriction of the pores … of the body.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iii. § 37. 161. Evincing the systole of the Heart to be a muscular constriction.
1794. S. Williams, Vermont, 90. By their constriction the fluid is forced out.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 19/2. [Serpents have] immense muscular power, enabling some of the species to kill large animals by constriction.
b. A morbid condition of contractedness or tightness, or the feeling of such a condition.
1783. Johnson, Lett. to J. Taylor, 17 June, in Boswell. An oppressive, constriction of my chest.
1871. W. A. Hammond, Dis. Nervous Syst., 49. In both there are headache, sense of constriction, vertigo, etc.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Constriction-band sensation, a feeling as of a cord tied round the waist; a symptom of some diseases of the spinal cord.
† c. A spasmodic contraction or shrinking of any part of the body. Obs.
1771. S. Farr, Anim. Motion, 366. A Fourth effect … from a Stimulus, when it acts upon our bodies, is a Constriction or Spasm of the part to which it is applied.
2. concr. A constricted part; a part markedly narrowed as if by some constricting influence.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1828), IV. xxxvii. 11. The spinal marrow being formed of knots separated only by slight or deep constrictions.
1865. Parkman, Champlain, ix. (1875), 301. A constriction of the vast channel narrows it to a mile.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 41. Raphanus maritimus … joints separated by a very deep constriction.
3. Something that constricts or confines.
1650. R. Hollingworth, Exerc. conc. Usurped Powers, 29. Those words … are an expresse, and fully sufficient constriction.
1877. Blackmore, Cripps, II. iv. 52. Neither was there hedge, or rail, or other mean constriction.
