Contract

Pronunciation

• enPR: kŏn'trăkt
• RP IPA: /ˈkÉ’ntrækt/
• US IPA: /ˈkÉ‘ntrækt/

From Middle English, from Old French contract, 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").

Full definition of contract

Noun

1. 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.
   Marriage is a contract.
• 2013-08-10, Lexington, Keeping the mighty honest, British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.
2. (legal) 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.
3. (legal) A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
4. (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.
5. (bridge) The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.

Hypernyms

• (agreement that is legally binding) agreement

Hyponyms

• (agreement that is legally binding) bailment

Derived terms

• contractual
• fixed-term contract
• contract of employment

Adjective

1. (obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kÉ™ntrăkt, IPA: /kÉ™nˈtrækt/

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.

Verb

1. (ambitransitive) To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.The snail's body contracted into its shell.to contract one's sphere of action
• WordsworthYears contracting to a moment.
• Dr. H. MoreIn all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties.
2. (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".
3. (transitive) To enter into a contract with.
4. (transitive) To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
• HakluytWe have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and league with the aforesaid queen.
• StrypeMany persons ... had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity ... prohibited by law.
5. (intransitive) To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.to contract for carrying the mail
6. (transitive) To bring on; to incur; to acquire.She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.to contract a debt
• Alexander PopeEach from each contract new strength and light.
• Jonathan SwiftSuch behaviour we contract by having much conversed with persons of high stature.
7. (transitive) To gain or acquire (an illness).
• 1999, Davidson C. Umeh, Protect Your Life: A Health Handbook for Law Enforcement Professionals (page 69)An officer contracted hepatitis B and died after handling the blood-soaked clothing of a homicide victim...
8. To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
• ShakespeareThou didst contract and purse thy brow.
9. To betroth; to affiance.
• ShakespeareThe truth is, she and I, long since contracted,
  Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.

Synonyms

• (lessen) abate, decrease, lessen, reduce
• (shorten) shorten, shrink
• (gain or acquire (an illness)) catch, get

Antonyms

• (lessen) increase, expand
• (shorten) grow, lengthen