compact
     adj 1: closely and firmly united or packed together; "compact
            soil"; "compact clusters of flowers" [ant: {loose}]
     2: closely crowded together; "a compact shopping center"; "a
        dense population"; "thick crowds" [syn: {dense}, {thick}]
     3: heavy and compact in form or stature; "a wrestler of compact
        build"; "he was tall and heavyset"; "stocky legs"; "a
        thick middle-aged man"; "a thickset young man" [syn: {heavyset},
         {stocky}, {thick}, {thickset}]
     4: briefly giving the gist of something; "a short and
        compendious book"; "a compact style is brief and pithy";
        "succinct comparisons"; "a summary formulation of a
        wide-ranging subject" [syn: {compendious}, {succinct}, {summary}]
     n 1: a small cosmetics case with a mirror; to be carried in a
          woman's purse [syn: {powder compact}]
     2: a signed written agreement between two or more parties
        (nations) to perform some action [syn: {covenant}, {concordat}]
     3: a small and economical car [syn: {compact car}]
     v 1: have the property of being packable or compactable or of
          compacting easily; "This powder compacts easily"; "Such
          odd-shaped items do not pack well" [syn: {pack}]
     2: compress into a wad; "wad paper into the box" [syn: {pack},
        {bundle}, {wad}]
     3: make more compact by or as if by pressing; "compress the
        data" [syn: {compress}, {pack together}] [ant: {decompress}]
     4: squeeze or press together; "she compressed her lips"; "the
        spasm contracted the muscle" [syn: {compress}, {constrict},
         {squeeze}, {contract}, {press}]
Source: WordNet® 2.0

compact adj. Of a design, describes the valuable property that it can
   all be apprehended at once in one's head. This generally means the thing
   created from the design can be used with greater facility and fewer
   errors than an equivalent tool that is not compact. Compactness does not
   imply triviality or lack of power; for example, C is compact and FORTRAN
   is not, but C is more powerful than FORTRAN. Designs become non-compact
   through accreting {feature}s and {cruft} that don't merge cleanly into
   the overall design scheme (thus, some fans of {Classic C} maintain that
   ANSI C is no longer compact).


Source: The Jargon File