<p><strong>Verb (used with object)</strong></p><ul><li>to hold or include within its volume or area: This glass contains water. This paddock contains our best horses.</li><li>to be capable of holding; have capacity for: The room will contain 75 persons safely.</li><li>to have as contents, content, or constituent parts; comprise; include.</li><li>Synonyms: embrace, embody</li><li>to keep under proper control; restrain: He could not contain his amusement.</li><li>to prevent or limit the expansion, influence, success, or advance of (a hostile nation, competitor, opposing force, natural disaster, etc.): to contain an epidemic.</li><li>to succeed in preventing the spread of: efforts to contain water pollution.</li><li>Mathematics: (of a number) to be a multiple of; be divisible by, without a remainder: Ten contains five.</li><li>to be equal to: A quart contains two pints.</li></ul>