Definition of "contain"

At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […]

[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 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

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 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884

Fear not, my lord: we can contain ourselves.

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act INDUCTION, scene i]

[The king's] only Person is oftentimes instead of an Army, to contain the unruly People from a thousand evil Occasions.

1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […]; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809,

Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.

1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], page 16

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

But if they cannot contain, let them marry.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Bible Corinthians/#8 1 Corinthians:8–9