contract
/ˈkɒntrækt/ noun [C]Definition
› LAW 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 → See Note agreement
› FINANCE, STOCK MARKET 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.
be under contract › LAW 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. › PROPERTY if a building or property is under contract, the owner has officially agreed to sell it to a particular person for a particular price: Two of the site's 8000 sq ft commercial lofts are currently under contract.
put sth out to contract › WORKPLACE 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. → See also aleatory contract, annual hours contract, bilateral contract, evergreen contract, executed contract, express contract, formal contract, forward contract, frustration of contract, futures contract, implied contract, labor contract, naked contract, onerous contract, options contract, oral contract, performance contract, personal contract, rolling contract, service contract, standard-form contract, turnkey contract, unenforceable contract, unilateral contract, voidable contract, void contract
(Definition of contract noun from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary
© Cambridge University Press)
Browse the Thesaurus
More Results for “contract”
Word of the Day
Blog
Read our blog about how the English language behaves.
New Words
Find words and meanings that have just started to be used in English, and let us know what you think of them.
