Definition of "contractile" [con•tract•ile]

• Capable of contracting or causing contraction: Muscle is a contractile tissue. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The protoplasm is more or less extensively excavated by fluid spaces, vacuoles; one clearer circular space or vacuole, which is invariably present, appears at intervals, enlarges gradually, and then vanishes abruptly, to reappear after a brief interval; this is called the contractile vacuole (c.v.)."
• "The euglenas main way of transporting itself is by swimming, the flagellum is mad up of of four part known as contractile fibrils, it uses these four fibrils to bend back and forth moving the creature along."
• "The euglenas main way of transporting itself is by swimming, the flagellum is mad up of of four part known as contractile fibrils, it uses these four fibrils to bend back and forth moving the creature to wherever it needs to go."