The difference between Contract and Shorten
When used as verbs, contract means to draw together or nearer, whereas shorten means to make shorter.
Contract is also noun with the meaning: 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.
Contract is also adjective with the meaning: contracted.
check bellow for the other definitions of Contract and Shorten
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Contract as a 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.
Examples:
"Marriage is a contract."
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Contract as a noun (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.
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Contract as a noun (legal):
A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
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Contract as a noun (informal):
An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
Examples:
"The mafia boss put a contract out on the man who betrayed him."
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Contract as a noun (bridge):
The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.
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Contract as an adjective (obsolete):
Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
Examples:
"rfquotek Shakespeare"
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Contract as an adjective (obsolete):
Not abstract; concrete.
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Contract as a verb (ambitransitive):
To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.
Examples:
"The snail's body contracted into its shell."
"to contract one's sphere of action"
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Contract as a verb (grammar):
To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
Examples:
"The word "cannot" is often contracted into "can't"."
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Contract as a verb (transitive):
To enter into a contract with.
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Contract as a verb (transitive):
To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
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Contract as a verb (intransitive):
To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.
Examples:
"to contract for carrying the mail"
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Contract as a verb (transitive):
To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
Examples:
"She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens."
"to contract a debt"
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Contract as a verb (transitive):
To gain or acquire (an illness).
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Contract as a verb:
To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
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Contract as a verb:
To betroth; to affiance.
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Shorten as a verb (transitive):
To make shorter; to abbreviate.
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Shorten as a verb (intransitive):
To become shorter.
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Shorten as a verb (transitive):
To make deficient (as to); to deprive (of).
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Shorten as a verb (transitive):
To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, etc.
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Shorten as a verb (transitive):
To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen.
Examples:
"to shorten an allowance of food"
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Shorten as a verb (nautical, transitive):
To take in the slack of (a rope).
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Shorten as a verb (nautical, transitive):
To reduce (sail) by taking it in.