contain

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French contenir, from Latin continēre (“to hold or keep together, comprise, contain”), combined form of con- (“together”) + teneō (“to hold”).

verb

1. (transitive) To hold inside.
   The brown box contains three stacks of books.
   [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria,[…]. 2013-07-20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
2. (transitive) To include as a part.
   Most of the meals they offer contain meat.
   Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated. 2014-04-21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884
3. (transitive) To put constraints upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.
   I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself!
   There she goes / There she goes again / Racing through my brain / And I just can't contain / This feeling that remains 1988, Lee Mavers, “There She Goes”, in Sixpence None the Richer, performed by Sixpence None the Richer, published 1997
4. (mathematics, of a set etc., transitive) To have as an element or subset.
   A group contains a unique inverse for each of its elements.
   If that subgraph contains the vertex in question then it must be spanning.
5. (obsolete, intransitive) To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.