contain: Meaning and Definition of

con•tain

1. to hold or include within its volume or area: This glass contains water. This paddock contains our best horses.
2. to be capable of holding; have capacity for: The room will contain 75 persons safely.
3. to have as contents or constituent parts; comprise; include.
4. to keep under proper control; restrain: He could not contain his amusement.
5. to prevent or limit the expansion, influence, success, or advance of (a hostile nation, competitor, opposing force, natural disaster, etc.): to contain an epidemic.
6. to succeed in preventing the spread of: efforts to contain water pollution.
7. (of a number) to be a multiple of; be divisible by, without a remainder: Ten contains five.
8. to be equal to: A quart contains two pints.