Meaning of contract In English

• 0 a legal document that states and explains a formal agreement between two different people or groups, or the agreement itself:

  • a contract of employment

  • a temporary/building contract

  • They could take legal action against you if you break (the terms of) the contract.

  • My solicitor is drawing up (= writing) a contract.

  • Don't sign/enter into any contract before examining its conditions carefully.

  • [ + to infinitive ] They're the firm of architects who won the contract to design the Museum of Fine Art extension.

• 1 to make or become shorter or narrower or generally smaller in size:

  • In spoken English, "do not" often contracts to "don't".

  • As it cooled, the metal contracted.

  • A recession is a period when the economy is contracting.

  • Agricultural output has contracted by 2.3 percent.

• 2 to catch or become ill with a disease:

  • He contracted malaria while he was travelling.

• 3 to make a legal agreement with someone to do work or to have work done for you:

  • [ + to infinitive ] Our company was contracted to build shelters for the homeless.

• 4 a legal document that states and explains a formal agreement between two different people or groups, or the agreement itself:

  • She already has a contract for her next book with a publisher.

• 5 to make or become shorter or narrower, or smaller:

  • [ I ] When wet fibers dry, they contract.

• 6 to catch or become ill with a disease:

  • She contracted pneumonia and was hospitalized.

• 7 to arrange through a formal agreement to have a person or company produce something or supply workers or material, esp. for building :

  • The company had been contracted to build shelters for the homeless.

  • [ M ] The university contracts out the cleaning to a private company.

• 8 a formal agreement between two people or companies, or a legal document that explains the details of this agreement:

  • contract for sth The contract for the new drilling platform went to a Dutch company.

  • contract to do sth He recently landed a contract to write a book about his expedition.

  • contract with sb State agencies spent about $319 million on contracts with private vendors last year.

  • contract between sb and sb It is a standard contract between a home seller and their agent.

  • An independent contractor is legally responsible for job completion and, on quitting, becomes liable for breach of contract.

  • draw up/write up a contract

  • enter into/sign a contract

  • be awarded/win/land a contract

  • a long-term/short-term contract

• 9 a formal agreement relating to buying or selling a stock, currency, commodity, etc. for a particular price at a particular time:

  • An option differs from a futures contract, in which both parties make a binding agreement to buy or sell currency at some point in the future.

• 10 to have made a formal agreement with another person or company, and be legally responsible for doing what you have agreed to do:

  • We're under contract to complete the job by the end of the year.

  • Two of the site's 8000 sq ft commercial lofts are currently under contract.

• 11 if an organization, government, etc. puts something out to contract, they allow different companies to compete to provide a service or do a job for them:

  • One way to make the process more efficient would be to put it out to contract.

• 12 if a market or economy contracts, less money is being earned, spent, or invested in it:

  • contract by 3%/5%, etc. The country’s economy contracted by 2% in the first quarter.

• 13 to make a legal agreement with another person or company, for example, to do work for them or to use their services:

  • be contracted to do sth A local architecture firm was contracted to design and plan the new symphony hall.

• 14 contract workers are paid by companies or other organizations to work on a particular job, but are not employees of those companies, organizations, etc.:

  • Many contract workers provide services once handled in-house by the military.

  • New and growing businesses often initially hire contract labor to prevent overstaffing and runaway overheads.

  • contract computing staff