Definition of "contrectation" []

• A mutual touching or handling. (noun)
• In civil law, such handling and removing of goods as will amount to theft if they are not restored to their original place. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "In the third place, the two processes, contrectation and detumescence, may occur simultaneously, without the detumescence being associated with the object of the contrectation impulse."
• "But we must always remember that in the child more often than in the adult the voluptuous acme and the sense of satisfaction occur independently of the processes of contrectation."
• "This explains the fact that in the child both the peripheral voluptuous sensation, and also the voluptuous acme and the sense of satisfaction, are more frequently independent of the processes of contrectation than is the case in the adult Gradually the two groups of processes become associated with one another; and, as we have learned, this association frequently occurs even in childhood."