- contract
- contract n Contract, bargain, compact, pact, treaty, entente, convention, cartel, concordat designate an agreement reached after negotiation and ending in an exchange of promises between the parties concerned.Contract applies especially to a formal written agreement, often of a business nature, couched in such explicit terms as to be enforceable at law{
a regular contract to the above effect was drawn up by a lawyer, and signed and sealed in the presence of witnesses— Hawthorne
}Bargain applies especially to an agreement regarding purchase and sale{this bargain provides for an exchange of so much American wheat and cotton for so much British rubber and tin
}A compact is an earnest or solemn exchange of promises, sometimes between state or political groups and often between persons. A compact may be unwritten or undocumented, the only assurance of its execution being the trust which each party places in the honor of the other. The word is used when a keen sense of the obligation which it imposes is assumed of each of the parties{men and women . . . marry and promise loyalty to some one person. They can keep that compact and yet not shut themselves away from other men and other women— Rose Macaulay
}{let us make a compact. I shall do everything to please you, and you must promise to do everything to please me— Hudson
}{the National Assembly, inspired by Thiers's patriotism, adopted . . . the "Compact of Bordeaux," whereby it was agreed that political differences should be put aside in order to carry through expeditiously the work of reconstruction— Schapiro
}Pact as used of an agreement between persons or groups is usually interchangeable with compact{suicide pact, an agreement between two persons to commit suicide
}{an unvoiced pact between us to read him with . . . skepticism— Horace Gregory
}Perhaps because of its popularity with newspaper headline writers which its brevity won for it, pact is used with increasing frequency in the (often unofficial) title of agreements between states{the Pact of Corfu was a constitutional pact wherein leaders of the southern Slavs agreed to join in a unitary kingdom— The Nation
}in this use it is frequently interchanged with treaty, which is the generic term for an agreement between states made by negotiation or diplomacy{the Lateran Pact or Treaty establishing Vatican City
}{a nonaggression pact
}{a trade pact
}{a commercial treaty
}{the president . . . shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties — U.S. Constitution
}Treaty, and never pact, however, is the term for an agreement establishing peace after a period of armed hostility{the Treaty of Versailles
}An entente is a cordial or amicable agreement between nations in regard to their foreign affairs, usually involving a promise of joint military action in case of aggression against an adherent to the entente{the Triple Entente between France, Great Britain, and Russia
}An entente may be in writing set forth in a published document or it may be based simply on an exchange of promises between heads of government, or may be merely a state of mind of the peoples concerned{it changes the entente into an alliance, and alliances ... are not in accordance with our traditions— Grey
}The word is also used of an understanding between groups (as of economic competitors){a broader "peace treaty" between leaders of industry, labor, and agriculture governing both price and wage adjustments. This kind of entente would seem to be central to the management of an economy such as ours— L. G. Reynolds
}A convention is usually an agreement which is either less formal or more specific than a treaty; it may be an agreement between several states regulating matters affecting all of them (as postage, copyright, or the conduct of war) or an agreement between commanders of armies in respect to military operations{the conventions for suspending hostilities agreed upon by me with Marshals Soult and Suchet— Wellington
}A cartel (see also MONOPOLY) is a written agreement or convention between opposing nations, usually for the regulation of intercourse between them in view of or during war. Cartels provide for such matters as the treatment and exchange of prisoners, postal and telegraphic communication, the mode of reception of bearers of flags of truce, and the treatment of the wounded.Concordat usually applies to an agreement between the pope and a secular government for regulating the relations between church and state{the Concordat of Worms was an agreement with Germany (1122) regulating investiture of bishops and abbots
}Less often the term is used for an agreement regulating ecclesiastical matters{the prospect of a union of the Protestant Episcopal church and the Presbyterian Church . . . which a concordat proposed a year ago— Springfield Republican
}contract vb1 pledge, covenant, engage, *promise, plight2 catch, *incur3 Contract, shrink, condense, compress, constrict, deflatedenote to decrease in bulk, volume, or content, but they vary widely in their suggestion as to how this decrease is effected and what consequences it has.Contract means to draw together the sides or the particles of, especially by a force from within, with a consequent reduction in compass or a compacting of the mass{the heart, by contracting and dilating rhythmically, keeps up the circulation of the blood
}{molten iron contracts as it cools
}Shrink means to contract so as to fall short of an original length, bulk, or volume{shrink cloth
}{his assets have shrunk
}{apples often shrink before rotting
}Condense denotes reduction, usually of something more or less homogeneous, to greater compactness without material loss of content{condense a gas to a liquid
}{condense a speech into a few paragraphs
}Compress, which also means to reduce to a compact state, differs from condense in that it connotes a pressing or squeezing of something formless or diffused into definite shape or into a small compass{compress air
}{compress cotton into bales
}{compress the events of a lifetime into a play taking three hours to present
}Constrict means to make narrow or smaller in diameter either by contraction or by squeezing{the pores of certain bodies are constricted under the influence of cold
}{the throat is constricted by too tight a collar
}Deflate means to cause to shrink by exhausting of a gas, air, or something insubstantial{deflate a balloon
}{deflate a wild rumor
}{deflate an undeserved reputation
}Analogous words: dwindle, diminish, *decrease, reduceAntonyms: expandContrasted words: dilate, swell, distend, inflate (see EXPAND)
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
