contract
UK /ˈkɒntɹækt/ · US /ˈkɑntɹækt/ noun, adjective, verb
Forms contracts contracting contracted
- noun An agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement. “sign a contract”
- noun A period of work agreed to under a temporary contract. “He worked a six-month contract on an oil rig.”
- noun (law) An agreement which the law will enforce in some way. A legally binding contract must contain at least one promise, i.e., a commitment or offer, by an offeror to and accepted by an offeree to do something in the future. A contract is thus executory rather than executed.
- noun (law) The document containing such an agreement.
- noun (law) A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
- noun (informal) An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone. “The mafia boss put a contract out on the man who betrayed him.”
- noun (bridge) The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.
- adjective (obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
- adjective (obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.
- verb (ambitransitive) To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen. “The snail’s body contracted into its shell.”
- verb (grammar) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one. “The word “cannot” is often contracted into “can’t”.”
- verb (intransitive) To make an agreement or contract; to covenant. “The company contracted with the council to build 200 new houses.”
- verb (transitive) To enter into a contract with (someone or something). “We have just contracted new pest control services.”
- verb (transitive, archaic) To enter into (an agreement) with mutual obligations; to make (an arrangement).
- verb (transitive) To bring on; to incur; to acquire. “She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.”
- verb (transitive) To gain or acquire (an illness).
- verb To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
Synonyms
compact pact contract law abate decrease lessen reduce shorten shrink catch get declaration contract bridge undertake sign sign on sign up compress constrict squeeze press take condense concentrate narrow abridge foreshorten abbreviate cut
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English, from Old French contract, from Latin contractus (noun), from contrahere (“to bring together, to bring about, to conclude a bargain”) [from con- (“with, together”) + trahere (“to draw, to pull”)] + -tus (suffix forming nouns from verbs).
From Middle English, from Middle French contracter, from Latin contractum, past participle of contrahere (“to bring together, to bring about, to conclude a bargain”), from con- (“with, together”) + trahere (“to draw, to pull”). The verb developed after the noun, and originally meant only "draw together"; the sense "make a contract with" developed later.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lesen; as, to contract one's shpere of action.
- verb To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
- verb To be drawn together so as to be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet. Years contracting to a moment. Wordsworth.
- verb To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail.
Etymology [L. contractus, p.p. of contrahere to contract; con- + trahere to draw: cf. F. contracter. See Trace, and cf. Contract, n.]
Etymology [L. contractus, p.p.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “contract”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details