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Retract vs. Contract — What's the Difference?

Retract vs. Contract — What's the Difference?

Difference Between Retract and Contract

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Retract

To take back; disavow
Refused to retract the statement.

Contract

A contract is a legally binding document between at least two parties that defines and governs the rights and duties of the parties to an agreement. A contract is legally enforceable because it meets the requirements and approval of the law.

Retract

To draw back or in
A plane retracting its landing gear.

Contract

An agreement between two or more parties, especially one that is written and enforceable by law.

Retract

To utter (a sound) with the tongue drawn back.
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Contract

The writing or document containing such an agreement.

Retract

To draw back (the tongue).

Contract

The branch of law dealing with formal agreements between parties.

Retract

To take something back or disavow it.

Contract

Marriage as a formal agreement; betrothal.

Retract

To draw back
A leash that retracts into a plastic case.

Contract

The last and highest bid of a suit in one hand in bridge.

Retract

(transitive)

Contract

The number of tricks thus bid.

Retract

To pull (something) back or back inside.
Pull back
An airplane retracts its wheels for flight.

Contract

Contract bridge.

Retract

(rare) To avert (one's eyes or a gaze).

Contract

A paid assignment to murder someone
Put out a contract on the mobster's life.

Retract

(phonetics) To pronounce (a sound, especially a vowel) farther to the back of the vocal tract.

Contract

To enter into by contract; establish or settle by formal agreement
Contract a marriage.

Retract

(obsolete) To hold back (something); to restrain.

Contract

To acquire or incur
Contract obligations.
Contract a serious illness.

Retract

(intransitive) To draw back; to draw up; to withdraw.
The bus was stuck at the stop as its wheelchair ramp wouldn’t retract after use.
Muscles retract after amputation.

Contract

To reduce in size by drawing together; shrink.

Retract

(transitive)

Contract

To pull together; wrinkle.

Retract

To cancel or take back (something, such as an edict or a favour or grant previously bestowed); to rescind, to revoke.

Contract

(Grammar) To shorten (a word or words) by omitting or combining some of the letters or sounds, as do not to don't.

Retract

To break or fail to keep (a promise, etc.); to renege.

Contract

To enter into or make an agreement
Contract for garbage collection.

Retract

To take back or withdraw (something that has been said or written); to disavow, to repudiate.
I retract all the accusations I made about the senator and sincerely hope he won’t sue me.

Contract

To become reduced in size by or as if by being drawn together
The pupils of the patient's eyes contracted.

Retract

(games) Originally in chess and now in other games as well: to take back or undo (a move); specifically (card games) to take back or withdraw (a card which has been played).

Contract

An agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement.
Marriage is a contract.
Sign a contract
Write up a contract
Read a contract
Countersign a contract
Legally-binding contract
Unwritten contract

Retract

(intransitive)

Contract

(legal) An agreement which the law will enforce in some way. A legally binding contract must contain at least one promise, i.e., a commitment or offer, by an offeror to and accepted by an offeree to do something in the future. A contract is thus executory rather than executed.

Retract

To decline or fail to do something promised; to break one's word.

Contract

(legal) The document containing such an agreement.

Retract

Of something said or written (such as published academic work): to take back or withdraw.

Contract

(legal) A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.

Retract

To change one's mind after declaring an intention to make a certain move.

Contract

(informal) An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
The mafia boss put a contract out on the man who betrayed him.

Retract

An act of retracting or withdrawing (a mistake, a statement, etc.); a retraction.

Contract

(bridge) The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.

Retract

A pulling back, especially (military) of an army or military troops; a pull-back, a retreat; also, a signal for this to be done.

Contract

(obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.

Retract

Synonym of retreat

Contract

(obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.

Retract

To draw back; to draw up or shorten; as, the cat can retract its claws; to retract a muscle.

Contract

(ambitransitive) To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.
The snail’s body contracted into its shell.
To contract one’s sphere of action

Retract

To withdraw; to recall; to disavow; to recant; to take back; as, to retract an accusation or an assertion.
I would as freely have retracted this charge of idolatry as I ever made it.

Contract

(grammar) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
The word “cannot” is often contracted into “can’t”.

Retract

To take back,, as a grant or favor previously bestowed; to revoke.

Contract

(transitive) To enter into a contract with. en

Retract

To draw back; to draw up; as, muscles retract after amputation.

Contract

(transitive) To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.

Retract

To take back what has been said; to withdraw a concession or a declaration.
She will, and she will not; she grants, denies,Consents, retracts, advances, and then files.

Contract

(intransitive) To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.
To contract for carrying the mail

Retract

The pricking of a horse's foot in nailing on a shoe.

Contract

(transitive) To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.
To contract a debt

Retract

Formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure;
He retracted his earlier statements about his religion
She abjured her beliefs

Contract

(transitive) To gain or acquire (an illness).

Retract

Pull away from a source of disgust or fear

Contract

To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.

Retract

Use a surgical instrument to hold open (the edges of a wound or an organ)

Contract

To betroth; to affiance.

Retract

Pull inward or towards a center;
The pilot drew in the landing gear
The cat retracted his claws

Contract

To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action.
In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties.

Contract

To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
Thou didst contract and purse thy brow.

Contract

To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease.
Each from each contract new strength and light.
Such behavior we contract by having much conversed with persons of high station.

Contract

To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and lague with the aforesaid queen.
Many persons . . . had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity . . . prohibited by law.

Contract

To betroth; to affiance.
The truth is, she and I, long since contracted,Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.

Contract

To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.

Contract

To be drawn together so as to be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet.
Years contracting to a moment.

Contract

To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail.

Contract

Contracted; as, a contract verb.

Contract

Contracted; affianced; betrothed.

Contract

The agreement of two or more persons, upon a sufficient consideration or cause, to do, or to abstain from doing, some act; an agreement in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing; a formal bargain; a compact; an interchange of legal rights.

Contract

A formal writing which contains the agreement of parties, with the terms and conditions, and which serves as a proof of the obligation.

Contract

The act of formally betrothing a man and woman.
This is the the night of the contract.

Contract

A binding agreement between two or more persons that is enforceable by law

Contract

(contract bridge) the highest bid becomes the contract setting the number of tricks that the bidder must make

Contract

A variety of bridge in which the bidder receives points toward game only for the number of tricks he bid

Contract

Enter into a contractual arrangement

Contract

Engage by written agreement;
They signed two new pitchers for the next season

Contract

Squeeze or press together;
She compressed her lips
The spasm contracted the muscle

Contract

Become smaller or draw together;
The fabric shrank
The balloon shrank

Contract

Be stricken by an illness, fall victim to an illness;
He got AIDS
She came down with pneumonia
She took a chill

Contract

Make smaller;
The heat contracted the woollen garment

Contract

Compress or concentrate;
Congress condensed the three-year plan into a six-month plan

Contract

Make or become more narrow or restricted;
The selection was narrowed
The road narrowed

Contract

Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements;
The manuscript must be shortened

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