contract

1. 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.

   • sign a contract
   • write up a contract
2. 2

   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.; A period of work agreed to under a temporary contract.

   • He worked a six-month contract on an oil rig.
3. 3

   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.

4. 4

   The document containing such an agreement.

5. 5

   A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.

6. 6

   An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.informal

   • The mafia boss put a contract out on the man who betrayed him.
7. 7

   The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.

1. 1

   Contracted; affianced; betrothed.not-comparableobsolete

   • But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel
2. 2

   Not abstract; concrete.not-comparableobsolete

   • But now in eche kinde of these, there are certaine nombers named Abſtracte: and other called nombers Contracte.

1. 1

   To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.ambitransitive

   • The snail’s body contracted into its shell.
   • to contract one’s sphere of action
2. 2

   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. 3

   To make an agreement or contract; to covenant.intransitive

   • The company contracted with the council to build 200 new houses.
4. 4

   To enter into a contract with (someone or something).transitive

   • We have just contracted new pest control services.
5. 5

   To enter into (an agreement) with mutual obligations; to make (an arrangement).archaictransitive

   • We have contracted an inviolable amitie, peace, and league with the aforesaid Queene.
   • Many persons […] had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity […] prohibited by law.
6. 6

   To bring on; to incur; to acquire.transitive

   • She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.
   • to contract a debt
7. 7

   To gain or acquire (an illness).transitive

   • At that time, the city [Christiania, now Oslo] was in the grip of a cholera epidemic, and victims were dying at the rate of 60 a day. Bradshaw contracted the disease, and died on September 6 [1853].
   • An officer contracted hepatitis B and died after handling the blood-soaked clothing of a homicide victim […]
8. 8

   To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.

   • And didſt contract, and purſe thy brow together, / As if thou then hadſt ſhut vp in thy braine, / Some horrible counſell: […]
9. 9

   To betroth; to affiance.

   • The truth is, ſhe and I (long ſince contracted) / Are now ſo ſure that nothing can diſſolve vs: […]

ant. increase · expand · grow · lengthen