Miss Austen's novels are compact of delicate trivialities … Samuel Alexander
2
a
: having a dense structure or parts or units closely packed or joined
a compact woolen
compact bone
b
: not diffuse or verbose
a compact statement
c
: occupying a small volume by reason of efficient use of space
a compact camera
a compact formation of troops
d
: short-bodied, solid, and without excess flesh
He had a small, compact body that looked full of life. D. H. Lawrence
3
: being a topological space and especially a metric space with the property that for any collection of open sets which contains it there is a subset of the collection with a finite number of elements which also contains it
Adjective The drill has a compact design. the apartment's compact floor plan The cabin was compact but perfectly adequate. He is compact and muscular. He has a compact body. Verb The snow had compacted into a hard icy layer. the media giant decided to compact all of its far-flung operations onto a single site See More
Word History
Etymology
Adjective and Verb
Middle English, firmly put together, from Latin compactus, from past participle of compingere to put together, from com- + pangere to fasten — more at pact
Noun (2)
Latin compactum, from neuter of compactus, past participle of compacisci to make an agreement, from com- + pacisci to contract — more at pact