contract

Meaning

Noun

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.
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.
5. (informal) An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
6. The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.

Adj

1. (obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
2. (obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.

Verb

1. To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.
2. To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
3. To enter into a contract with.
4. To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
5. To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.
6. To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
7. To gain or acquire (an illness).
8. To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
9. To betroth; to affiance.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈkɒntɹækt/

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French contract, from Latin contractum, past participle of contrahere (“to bring together, to bring about, to conclude a bargain”), from con- (“with, together”) + trahere (“to draw, to pull”).