noun
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a person or firm that contracts to supply materials or labour, esp for building
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something that contracts, esp a muscle
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law a person who is a party to a contract
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the declarer in bridge
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of contractor
From Late Latin, dating back to 1540–50; see origin at contract, -tor
Explanation
A contractor is someone who is hired to build something. As a contractor at a building site, it is highly recommended you keep your hard hat on at all times. When you think of contractor, you may picture construction sites; however, the word has other meanings as well. Legally, if you sign a contract to perform a specific job then you are what is known as a contractor. When there are not many full-time jobs available for workers, sometimes the only option is to become a freelance contractor, which might mean that you only work part-time or when needed.
Vocabulary lists containing contractor
The Circuit
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Structural Engineering
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -er, -or
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In a forest grove to the east, a contractor climbed into a mechanical harvester and pivoted its head to grip and fell a tree, strip its branches and cut the trunk into exact lengths.
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin’s stock rose 7% after raising its backlog forecast and announcing a decade-long deal to supply the Pentagon with fighter jets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
He was meeting with two executives and a lobbyist from a Hawaiian naval defense contractor called Navatek.
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026
Her son had told her he was working as an electrical contractor and she had no idea he had joined the Russian army in April last year.
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026
“He worked for me a few years ago. Díaz, the labor contractor, had it in for him and sent him back to Mexico.”
From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez
It said 2,600 Enedis technicians and contractors were working to re-establish power.
From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2026
On one job, when contractors were using explosives to fell turbines, hubs weighing more than 30 tons ended up buried deep in clay and had to be arduously excavated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2026
Specialist drainage and containment contractors had been sent to the site and were removing the fuel.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026
Can you understand why anyone would be, other than the contractors?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026
Were there contractors and laborers working around the clock on a prison days after the hurricane?
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
