contract

Plural: contracts

Noun

• a binding agreement between two or more persons that is enforceable by law
• (contract bridge) the highest bid becomes the contract setting the number of tricks that the bidder must make
• a variety of bridge in which the bidder receives points toward game only for the number of tricks he bid
• 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.
• 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.
• The document containing such an agreement.
• A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
• An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
• The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.

Verb

Verb Forms: contracted, contracting, contracts

• To decrease in size, volume, or extent; to shrink.
• enter into a contractual arrangement
• engage by written agreement
• squeeze or press together
  • "the spasm contracted the muscle"
• be stricken by an illness, fall victim to an illness
• become smaller or draw together
• make smaller
  • "The heat contracted the woollen garment"
• compress or concentrate
• make or become more narrow or restricted
• reduce in scope while retaining essential elements
• To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.
• To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
• To make an agreement or contract; to covenant.
• To enter into a contract with (someone or something).
• To enter into (an agreement) with mutual obligations; to make (an arrangement).
• To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
• To gain or acquire (an illness).
• To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
• To betroth; to affiance.

Adj

• Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
• Not abstract; concrete.

Examples

• countersign a contract
• legally-binding contract
• Marriage is a contract.
• My Words With Friends opponent hoped my lead would contract after their power play.
• read a contract
• She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.
• sign a contract
• The company contracted with the council to build 200 new houses.
• The mafia boss put a contract out on the man who betrayed him.
• The snail’s body contracted into its shell.
• The word “cannot” is often contracted into “can’t”.
• to contract a debt
• to contract one’s sphere of action
• unwritten contract
• We have just contracted new pest control services.
• write up a contract

Synonyms

abbreviate, abridge, compact, compress, concentrate, condense, constrict, contract bridge, cut, declaration, foreshorten, get, narrow, press, reduce, shorten, shrink, sign, sign on, sign up, squeeze, take, undertake, abate, catch, contract law, decrease, lessen, pact

Antonyms

expand, stretch, widen, grow, increase, lengthen

Anagrams of contract