contract
Forms
- Plural
- contracts
- present (v1)
- contract
- past (v2)
- contracted
- past participle (v3)
- contracted
- present participle
- contracting
- 3rd person singular
- contracts
Definitions
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.
- They made him sign the contract.
- You should look over the contract before you sign it.
2.The document containing such an agreement.
- They made him sign the contract.
- You should look over the contract before you sign it.
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.
- They made him sign the contract.
- You should look over the contract before you sign it.
4.A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
- They made him sign the contract.
- You should look over the contract before you sign it.
1.To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.
- The snail’s body contracted into its shell.
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.To make an agreement or contract; to covenant.
- The company contracted with the council to build 200 new houses.
4.To enter into a contract with (someone or something).
- We have just contracted new pest control services.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1317
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Word family
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).