contract
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: bridge
games
grammar
human-sciences
law
linguistics
sciences
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).
Affixes: -tus
Inflected forms:
form: contracts
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: contracts
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: contracting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: contracted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: contracted
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: sign a contract
write up a contract
read a contract
countersign a contract
legally-binding contract
unwritten contract
Marriage is a contract.
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.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
gloss: The document containing such an agreement.
pos: noun
gloss: A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
pos: noun
gloss: An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: The mafia boss put a contract out on the man who betrayed him.
gloss: The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.
pos: noun
gloss: To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: The snail’s body contracted into its shell.
to contract one’s sphere of action
We ſee in all things how deſuetude do's contract and narrow our faculties, ſo that we may apprehend only thoſe things wherein we are converſant.
Mutual was the sudden transport; / Breathless questions followed fast, / Years contracting to a moment, / Each word greedier than the last; […]
gloss: To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
pos: verb
examples: The word “cannot” is often contracted into “can’t”.
gloss: To make an agreement or contract; to covenant.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The company contracted with the council to build 200 new houses.
gloss: To enter into a contract with (someone or something).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: We have just contracted new pest control services.
gloss: To enter into (an agreement) with mutual obligations; to make (an arrangement).
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.
to contract a debt
Smit with the love of Siſter-arts we came, / And met congenial, mingling flame with flame; / Like friendly colours found our arts unite, / Each from each contract new ſtrength and light.
This talent of discretion, […] is no where so serviceable as to the clergy, to whose preferment nothing is so fatal as the character of wit, politeness in reading or manners, or that kind of behaviour, which we contract by having too much conversation with persons of high station and eminency; […]
A love like mine, Sir, I feel, is contracted once and for ever.
gloss: To gain or acquire (an illness).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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 […]
gloss: To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
pos: verb
examples: And didſt contract, and purſe thy brow together, / As if thou then hadſt ſhut vp in thy braine, / Some horrible counſell: […]
gloss: To betroth; to affiance.
pos: verb
examples: The truth is, ſhe and I (long ſince contracted) / Are now ſo ſure that nothing can diſſolve vs: […]
Antonyms: increase
expand
grow
lengthen
Derived words: adhesion contract
breach of contract
contract agent
contractarianism
contract awarding
contract bridge
contract cheating
contract curve
contractee
contract killer
contract killing
contractless
contractocracy
contract of employment
contract of sale
contract out
contract packing
contract period
contract programming
contract system
contract time
contractual
contraktnik
deposit contract
design by contract
e-contract
employment contract
fixed-term contract
forward contract
freedom of contract
future contract
futures contract
hypercontract
insurance contract
nominate contract
noncontract
open-book contract
open-ended contract
permanent contract
pink contract
precontract
prime contract
programming by contract
quasi-contract
requirements contract
retirement annuity contract
smart contract
social contract
specific contract
subcontract
supercontract
sweetheart contract
unilateral contract
will contract
yellow dog contract
zero-hour contract
zero-hours contract
contractability
contractable
contractible
contract in
contraction
contractive
contract out of
decontract
recontract
Translations: