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contract

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒntɹækt/

The English word “contract” has 18 meanings listed here.

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. A period of work agreed to under a temporary contract.
  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.
  4. The document containing such an agreement.
  5. A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
  6. An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
  7. The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.

adjective

  1. Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
  2. 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 make an agreement or contract; to covenant.
  4. To enter into a contract with (someone or something).
  5. To enter into (an agreement) with mutual obligations; to make (an arrangement).
  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.

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).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.