contract

American  

[kon-trakt, kuhn-trakt] / ˈkɒn trækt, kənˈtrækt /

noun

• contracts
  plural

1. an agreement between two or more parties for the doing or not doing of something specified.

2. an agreement enforceable by law.

3. the written form of an agreement enforceable by law.

4. the division of law dealing with contracts.

5. Also called contract bridge.  a variety of bridge in which the side that wins the bid can earn toward game only that number of tricks named in the contract, additional points being credited above the line.

6. (in auction or contract bridge)

   1. a commitment by the declarer and their partner to take six tricks plus the number specified by the final bid made.

   2. the final bid that specifies the number of tricks to which players must commit.

   3. the number of tricks to which players are committed, plus six.

7. the formal agreement of marriage; betrothal.

8. Slang. an arrangement for a hired assassin to kill a specific person.

---

adjective

1. under an agreement enforceable by law; governed or arranged by special legal agreement.

   As a contract carrier with us, you'll have access to more loads than with any other provider in North America.

verb (used with object)

• contracts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• contracted,
  past participle,  past
• contracting
  present participle

1. to draw together; make shorter, thinner, narrower, etc..

   In order to contract a muscle, the opposite muscle group has to be relaxed.

   Synonyms:

   shrink, shrivel, narrow, lessen, shorten, reduce

   Antonyms:

   expand

2. to shorten (a word, phrase, etc.) by combining or omitting some of its elements.

   Contracting “do not” yields “don't.”

3. to get or acquire, as by exposure to something contagious.

   I contracted malaria but didn't recognize the symptoms at first.

4. to incur, as a liability or obligation.

   He was very extravagant at college, and contracted many debts.

5. to settle or establish by agreement.

   Bismarck contracted an alliance with Austria to counteract Russian designs in Eastern Europe.

6. to assign (a job, work, project, etc.) by contract.

   The publisher contracted the artwork.

7. to enter into an agreement with.

   We contracted a freelancer to do the editing.

8. to enter into (friendship, acquaintance, etc.).

9. to betroth.

10. to wrinkle.

    to contract the brows.

verb (used without object)

• contracts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• contracted,
  past participle,  past
• contracting
  present participle

1. to become reduced in length, width, thickness, etc., by drawing together; become smaller.

   The pupils of his eyes contracted in the light.

2. to enter into an agreement.

   We contracted to have the books printed and bound by Willow Press.

verb phrase

1. contract out to hire an outside contractor to produce or do.

idioms

1. put out a contract on, to hire or attempt to hire an assassin to kill (someone).

   The mob put out a contract on the informer.

contract British  

verb

1. to make or become smaller, narrower, shorter, etc

   metals contract as the temperature is reduced

2. to enter into an agreement with (a person, company, etc) to deliver (goods or services) or to do (something) on mutually agreed and binding terms, often in writing

3. to draw or be drawn together; coalesce or cause to coalesce

4. (tr) to acquire, incur, or become affected by (a disease, liability, debt, etc)

5. (tr) to shorten (a word or phrase) by the omission of letters or syllables, usually indicated in writing by an apostrophe

6. phonetics to unite (two vowels) or (of two vowels) to be united within a word or at a word boundary so that a new long vowel or diphthong is formed

7. (tr) to wrinkle or draw together (the brow or a muscle)

8. (tr) to arrange (a marriage) for; betroth

---

noun

1. a formal agreement between two or more parties

2. a document that states the terms of such an agreement

3. the branch of law treating of contracts

4. marriage considered as a formal agreement

5. See contract bridge

6. bridge

   1. (in the bidding sequence before play) the highest bid, which determines trumps and the number of tricks one side must try to make

   2. the number and suit of these tricks

7. slang

   1. a criminal agreement to kill a particular person in return for an agreed sum of money

   2. ( as modifier )

      a contract killing

contract Cultural  

1. A legally binding agreement between two or more parties.

---

Synonym Usage

See agreement. Contract, compress, concentrate, condense imply retaining original content but reducing the amount of space occupied. Contract means to cause to draw more closely together: to contract a muscle. Compress suggests fusing to become smaller by means of fairly uniform external pressure: to compress gases into liquid form. Concentrate implies causing to gather around a point: to concentrate troops near an objective; to concentrate one's strength. Condense implies increasing the compactness, or thickening the consistency of a homogeneous mass: to condense milk. It is also used to refer to the reducing in length of a book or the like.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• contractee
  noun
• contractibility
  noun
• contractibleness
  noun
• postcontract
  noun
• overcontract
  verb (used with object)
• recontract
  verb (used with object)
• contractible
  adjective
• noncontract
  adjective
• contractibly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• contracts
  plural

Participles

• contracting
  present
• contracted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• contract
  simple
• contracts
  simple
• have contracted
  perfect
• has contracted
  perfect
• am contracting
  progressive
• are contracting
  progressive
• is contracting
  progressive
• have been contracting
  perfect progressive
• has been contracting
  perfect progressive

Past

• contracted
  simple
• had contracted
  perfect
• was contracting
  progressive
• were contracting
  progressive
• had been contracting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will contract
  simple
• will have contracted
  perfect
• will be contracting
  progressive
• will have been contracting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of contract

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English noun contract, contrait, from Old French, from Latin contractus “undertaking a transaction, agreement” (equivalent to contrac-, stem of contrahere “to draw in, bring together, enter into an agreement” + -tus verbal noun suffix); the verb is from Latin contractus, past participle of contrahere

Explanation

When you and someone else have agreed on something and that agreement is both binding and enforceable by law, you have a contract. When you rent an apartment, you and your future landlord sign a rental contract. You can also use the word in this sense as a verb meaning "to hire." Wouldn't you like to contract someone to clean your room for you? In other verbal uses of contract, place the accent on the second syllable — kun-TRAKT. If you contract a disease, you catch it, but only use this if it's something serious. You catch a cold, but contract malaria. Contract also means "shrink." When the economy contracts, consumers stop buying things, and people lose their jobs.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

contract contracts contracted contracting

PlayOn Sports will pay $810,000 in the first year that also escalates 3% each year of the contract.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

The 22-year-old has rejected contract offers from the Cherries amid interest from other Premier League teams, though his current deal does not expire until 2028 and the club have expressed their desire to keep him.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026

The Netherlands-based TTF September contract trades just shy of 60 euros a megawatt-hour and is headed for a weekly gain of 6%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

“A homeowner’s insurance policy is a contract between the insurer and the named insured,” Bart Scovill says.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

As I said, he’d studied law in America, and he advised her not to sign the contract.

From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña

Prediction markets are websites that sell contracts that allow users to wager on event outcomes.

From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2026

We are also looking at sourcing savings, from where we source, who we source from, how many of our operating companies source a particular item and renegotiating contracts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

Last month, Gloucester-Hartpury wing Mia Venner and Exeter scrum-half Flo Robinson were awarded full-time England contracts for the first time, among 32 deals for the 2026-27 season.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

Defined-outcome funds use options contracts, a kind of financial derivative, to limit investors’ potential losses over a given period, with the protection typically coming at the cost of a cap on gains.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026

When there’s a baby in the house, time stretches and contracts, abiding by none of the regular rules.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

“As that base grows, each new build becomes a smaller part of the whole, while contracted revenue from existing deployments remains in place. This is how we are transforming scale into operating leverage.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

Instead, the researchers investigate cosmic 'bounce' models, in which an earlier Universe contracted before reversing course and expanding.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

UK health officials have also warned about the cyclosporiasis outbreak following recent cases contracted by returning travellers.

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026

At least 345 people, mostly in Colorado and Minnesota, have contracted salmonella as part of this outbreak, as of Aug. 4, the latest update provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026

Plans had changed, unexpected houseguests had arrived, hosts had suddenly contracted malaria, dangerous tornadoes were expected—the excuses piled on.

From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood

Just last week, New Jersey sued Amazon alleging its contracting system illegally suppressed delivery workers’ wages.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

Some black holes may have originated during the earlier contracting phase and then passed through the bounce.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

The report from a pest control company said it could put people and animals with open wounds at risk of contracting disease.

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

That phrase appears in a contracting document for Acentra Health that was first reported on by independent journalists through the newsletter Popular Information.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

The contracting phase will be unsuitable because it has no strong thermodynamic arrow of time.

From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking

Related Words

• arrangement
• bargain
• bond
• commitment
• guarantee
• obligation
• pact
• pledge
• record
• settlement