What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Contract vs Marriage - What's the difference?

contract | marriage |

As nouns the difference between contract and marriage

is that contract is 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 while marriage is the state of being married.

As an adjective contract

is contracted; affianced; betrothed.

As a verb contract

is to draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.

contract

English

(wikipedia contract)

Etymology 1

From (etyl), from (etyl) contract, from (etyl) contractum, past participle of .

Noun

(en noun)
  • 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.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington
    • , title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}
  • (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.
  • (legal) A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
  • (informal) An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
  • (bridge) The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.
    • Hypernyms
    * (agreement that is legally binding) agreement
    Hyponyms
    * (agreement that is legally binding) bailment
    Derived terms
    * contractual * fixed-term contract * contract of employment

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.
  • * Robert Recorde, , 1557:
    • But now in eche kinde of these, there are certaine nombers named Ab?tracte'': and other called nombers ''Contracte .

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl), from (etyl) contracter, from (etyl) contractum, past participle of . the verb developed after the noun, and originally meant only "draw together"; the sense "make a contract with" developed later.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (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
  • * Wordsworth
    • Years contracting to a moment.
  • * Dr. H. More
    • In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties.
  • (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".
  • To enter into a contract with. (rfex)
  • To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
  • * Hakluyt
    • We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and league with the aforesaid queen.
  • * Strype
    • Many persons prohibited by law.
  • To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.
    • to contract for carrying the mail
  • To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
    • She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.
    to contract a debt
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Each from each contract new strength and light.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • Such behaviour we contract by having much conversed with persons of high stature.
  • To gain or acquire (an illness).
  • * 1999 , Davidson C. Umeh, Protect Your Life: A Health Handbook for Law Enforcement Professionals (page 69)
    • An officer contracted hepatitis B and died after handling the blood-soaked clothing of a homicide victim
  • To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Thou didst contract and purse thy brow.
  • To betroth; to affiance.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The truth is, she and I, long since contracted , / Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.
    Synonyms
    * (lessen) abate, decrease, lessen, reduce * (shorten) shorten, shrink * catch, get
    Antonyms
    * (lessen) increase, expand * (shorten) grow, lengthen

    marriage

    English

    (wikipedia marriage)

    Noun

  • (en noun)
  • The state of being married.
    • You should enter marriage for love.
  • A union of two or more people that creates a family tie and carries legal and/or social rights and responsibilities.
  • * 1944 , Tiaki Hikawera Mitira, Takitimu , page 123:
    • By his marriage to his two wives, Tapuwae quietly strengthened all of the pas of the Wairoa district, as many of them came under his control through these unions.
  • * 1990 , John Stevens, Lust for enlightenment: Buddhism and sex :
    • One layman in Buddha's time decided to embrace celibacy and relinquished his marriage vows to his four wives. When he asked them what they wanted in terms of a settlement, one said,
  • * 1995 , Edith Deen, All of the women of the Bible , page 275:
    • The account of the loss of the blessing of his father Isaac appears immediately after Esau's marriage to his Hittite wives.
  • * 2009 , Charles Zastrow, Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare: Empowering People (ISBN 0495809527), page 30:
    • In an open marriage , the partners are free to have extramarital relationships or sex without betraying one another. Such a marriage is based on communication, trust, and respect,
  • # (often specifically) The union of any two people, to the exclusion of all others.
  • #* '>citation
  • "I have a patient right now whose marriage proved to be a tragedy. She wanted love, sexual gratification, children, and social prestige; but life blasted all her hopes. Her husband didn't love her. He refused even to eat with her, and forced her to serve his meals in his room upstairs. She had no children, no social standing. She went insane; and, in her imagination, she divorced her husband and resumed her maiden name. She now believes she has married into the English aristocracy, and she insists on being called Lady Smith.
  • My grandparents' marriage lasted for forty years.
  • Pat and Leslie's marriage to each other lasted forty years.
  • # (sometimes specifically) The union of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others.
  • A wedding; a ceremony in which people wed.
    • You are cordially invited to the marriage of James Smith and Jane Doe.
  • (figuratively) A close union.
  • * 2000 , Edmund E. Jacobitti, The Classical Heritage in Machiavelli's Histories'', in ''The comedy and tragedy of Machiavelli: essays on the literary works (edited by Vickie B. Sullivan), page 181:
    • And this marriage of poetry and history remained a solid relationship throughout the classical period.
  • * 2003 , Paul Mattick, Art in its time: theories and practices of modern aesthetics , page 105:
    • Above all, we will no longer have to feel qualms about the marriage of art and money. We will no longer have to wonder if it is possible to separate the esthetic value of an art work from its commercial value.
  • * 2006' August 9, Amy Scattergood, ''A wild dream in the wild'', published in the ''Los Angeles Times'', republished in '''2009 in ''The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook: A Year in the Life of a Restaurant (by Michelle and Phillip Wojtowicz and Michael Gilson with Catherine Price), on the cover:
    • But the food is real: a marriage of local ingredients and serious technique.
  • A joining of two parts.
  • (card games) A king and a queen, when held as a hand in Texas hold 'em or melded in pinochle.
  • (card games) In solitaire or patience games, the placing a card of the same suit on the next one above or below it in value.

    • Usage notes

    * For a detailed discussion of marriage as an institution, with its traditions, its norms, and its accompanying legal rights and obligations, please consult the . * On Wiktionary, see also "common-law marriage", "open marriage" and "gay marriage".

    Synonyms

    * matrimony * wedding * civil union

    Antonyms

    * divorce

    Derived terms

    (marriage) * arranged marriage * Boston marriage * celestial marriage, celestial plural marriage * ceremonial marriage * child marriage * civil marriage * common-law marriage, common law marriage * companionate marriage * consummate marriage * defend marriage * earthly marriage * eternal marriage * frank-marriage * gay marriage * ghost marriage * group marriage * heavenly marriage * heterosexual marriage * homosexual marriage * informal marriage * inmarriage * institution of marriage * intermarriage, inter-marriage * Josephite marriage * levirate marriage * line marriage * marriageability * marriageable * marriage bed * marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute * marriage by habit and repute * marriage certificate * marriage counseling, marriage counselling * marriage counselor, marriage counsellor * marriage finger * marriage guidance * marriage licence, marriage license * marriage lite * marriage of convenience * marriage penalty * mixed marriage * mop marriage * morganatic marriage * multilateral marriage * mystical marriage * natural marriage * open marriage * outmarriage * plural marriage * polygamous marriage * postmarriage * posthumous marriage * pre-marriage * proxy marriage * pseudomarriage, pseudo-marriage * remarriage * republican marriage * royal marriage * same-sex marriage * sexless marriage * shotgun marriage * sororate marriage * spirit marriage * suspended marriage * temple marriage * traditional marriage * unmarriageability * unmarriageable * white marriage * work marriage * yogic marriage

    Related terms

    * marry

    See also

    * adelphogamy * bigamy * cohabitation * divorce * matrimony * monogamy * one flesh * polyandry * polygamy * polygyny * wedding * (group marriage)

    References

    * Michael Weisenberg, The Official Dictionary of Poker (2000, MGI/Mike Caro University, ISBN 978-1880069523)

    Statistics

    *