Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A contract in which a party agrees to perform part of the work that was originally arranged with the signer of a previous contract.
  • intransitive & transitive verb To make a subcontract or a subcontract for.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A contract under a previous contract.
  • To make a contract under a previous contract.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A contract under, or subordinate to, a previous contract.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To contract out portions of a larger contracted project.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb work under a subcontract; engage in a subcontract
  • verb arranged for contracted work to be done by others
  • noun a contract assigning to another party some obligations of a prior contract

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sub- +‎ contract

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Examples

  • Interestingly, Boeing has a long-term subcontract agreement with Northrop Grumman for continued production of major sections of 747, 757, 767, and 777 airliners worth approximately $6 billion, depending on the total number of airliners delivered.

    Purchasing - Top Stories 2010

  • He enjoyed a "busy private life" and tended to 'subcontract' the fiddly bits like pastry-making.

    dovegreyreader scribbles 2008

  • 101.6 The term "subcontract" means any agreement of any kind (whether in the form of a letter of intent, purchase order, or otherwise) pursuant to which work, supplies, or services required for the performance of a prime contractor were furnished by a subcontractor (including a materialman) to a prime contractor of higher tier subcontractor of any agency at any time during the statutory period.

    EXECUTIVE ORDER 9786 1946

  • Often they subcontract to contingency-fee firms who do the actual harassment.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » My New #1 Reason I Hate This Recession… 2009

  • Business owners that team or subcontract to procure federal contracts are far more likely to win those dollars.

    Shortcuts On How To Increase Your Bottom Line With Government Contracts Lourdes Martin-Rosa 2011

  • On the night of September 8, 2008, Santos was working as part of an inexperienced, unsupervised subcontract crew on a remodeling project at Wal-Mart store #2103 on Providence Highway in Walpole.

    Al Norman: Life & a Cheap Death at Wal-Mart Al Norman 2012

  • On the night of September 8, 2008, Santos was working as part of an inexperienced, unsupervised subcontract crew on a remodeling project at Wal-Mart store #2103 on Providence Highway in Walpole.

    Al Norman: Life & a Cheap Death at Wal-Mart Al Norman 2012

  • These rights are meaningless if companies are allowed to transfer work, subcontract work, or send work overseas as punishment for workers exercising their legal rights.

    Boeing, the NLRB and the Free Movement of Capital 2011

  • Dad explained that he could do a lot of the finish work himself, the wood trim, carpentry, and painting—precisely the kind of labor that was most time-consuming, requiring a good eye and steady brush, and would be costly to subcontract.

    Manifesting Michelangelo Joseph Pierce Farrell 2011

  • Business owners that team or subcontract to procure federal contracts are far more likely to win those dollars.

    Shortcuts On How To Increase Your Bottom Line With Government Contracts Lourdes Martin-Rosa 2011

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