(~ed)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
A ~ is a legal agreement, usually between two companies or between an employer and employee, which involves doing work for a stated sum of money.
The company won a prestigious ~ for work on Europe’s tallest building...
He was given a seven-year ~ with an annual salary of $150,000.
N-COUNT
2.
If you ~ with someone to do something, you legally agree to do it for them or for them to do it for you. (FORMAL)
You can ~ with us to deliver your cargo...
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has already ~ed to lease part of its collection to a museum in Japan.
VERB: V with n to-inf, V to-inf
3.
When something ~s or when something ~s it, it becomes smaller or shorter.
Blood is only expelled from the heart when it ~s...
New research shows that an excess of meat and salt can ~ muscles.
VERB: V, V n
~ion (~ions)
...the ~ion and expansion of blood vessels...
Foods and fluids are mixed in the stomach by its muscular ~ions.
N-VAR
4.
When something such as an economy or market ~s, it becomes smaller.
The manufacturing economy ~ed in October for the sixth consecutive month.
VERB: V
5.
If you ~ a serious illness, you become ill with it. (FORMAL)
He ~ed AIDS from a blood transfusion...
Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer ~ed by women.
VERB: no cont, V n, V-ed
6.
If you ~ a marriage, alliance, or other relationship with someone, you arrange to have that relationship with them. (FORMAL)
She ~ed a formal marriage to a British ex-serviceman.
= enter into
VERB: V n
7.
If there is a ~ on a person or on their life, someone has made an arrangement to have them killed. (INFORMAL)
The convictions resulted in the local crime bosses putting a ~ on him...
N-COUNT: usu N on n
8.
If you are under ~ to someone, you have signed a ~ agreeing to work for them, and for no-one else, during a fixed period of time.
The director wanted Olivia de Havilland, then under ~ to Warner Brothers.
PHRASE: oft PHR to n