contract

Noun

contract (plural contracts)

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

   Synonyms:

   compact, pact

   1. A period of work agreed to under a temporary contract.
      • He worked a six-month contract on an oil rig.
2. 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. The document containing such an agreement.
4. A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.

   Synonyms:

   contract law

5. (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.
6. The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.

Adjective

contract (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
   • But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 1
2. (obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.
   • But now in eche kinde of these, there are certaine nombers named Abſtracte: and other called nombers Contracte.1557, Robert Recorde, The Whetstone of Witte

Verb

IPA/kənˈtɹækt/

contract (third-person singular simple present contracts, present participle contracting, simple past and past participle contracted)

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

   Synonyms:

   abate, decrease, lessen, reduce, shorten, shrink

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. (intransitive) To make an agreement or contract; to covenant.
   • The company contracted with the council to build 200 new houses.
4. (transitive) To enter into a contract with (someone or something).
   • We have just contracted new pest control services.
5. (archaic, transitive) To enter into (an agreement) with mutual obligations; to make (an arrangement).
   • We have contracted an inviolable amitie, peace, and league with the aforesaid Queene.1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC
   • Many persons […] had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity […] prohibited by law.1721, John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials
6. (transitive) To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
   • She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.
   • to contract a debt
7. (transitive) To gain or acquire (an illness).
   • 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].1950 January, “Notes and News: George Bradshaw's Grave”, in Railway Magazine, pages 61–62
   • An officer contracted hepatitis B and died after handling the blood-soaked clothing of a homicide victim […]1999, Davidson C. Umeh, Protect Your Life: A Health Handbook for Law Enforcement Professionals, page 69

   Synonyms:

   catch, get

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: […]c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act...
9. To betroth; to affiance.
   • The truth is, ſhe and I (long ſince contracted) / Are now ſo ſure that nothing can diſſolve vs: […]c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...