contractor

contractor con‧trac‧tor [kənˈtræktə ǁ ˈkɑːntræktər] noun [countable]

COMMERCE a person or company that makes an agreement to do work or provide goods in large amounts for another company:

• The company has no plans to expand the use of contractors in place of its own staff.

• a roofing contractor

apˌproved conˈtractor COMMERCE

a contractor put on a list by an official group to say that they can be trusted to do work in a satisfactory way:

• Paint manufacturers will have to get themselves onto a list of approved contractors before they can even bid for orders to major customers.

ˈbuilding conˌtractor PROPERTY

a person or company that builds houses, offices, public buildings etc under the terms of a contract:

• a contract to supply building materials to a building contractor

deˈfence conˌtractor , defense contractor MANUFACTURING

a company that provides goods, such as aircraft, to a country's armed forces:

• major defence contractors, such as Boeing in Washington

ˌgeneral conˈtractor COMMERCE

the main contractor on a project, who is responsible for fulfilling the conditions of a contract, and usually employs smaller subcontractor S to do some or most of the work

ˈhaulage conˌtractor TRANSPORT

a person or company whose business is carrying goods for other companies by road or rail; = CONTRACT CARRIER:

• A haulage contractor agreed to deliver mixed concrete to RMC's customers.

ˌprime conˈtractor COMMERCE

another name for general contractor — see also subcontractor

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contractor UK US /kənˈtræktə^r/ noun [C] WORKPLACE, HR

► a person or company that is paid by another company to work on a particular project for a particular amount of money: »

Working 24/7 is something IT contractors grow used to if they want to compete.

→ See also APPROVED CONTRACTOR(Cf. ↑approved contractor), BUILDING CONTRACTOR(Cf. ↑building contractor), GENERAL CONTRACTOR(Cf. ↑general contractor), INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR(Cf. ↑independent contractor), PRIME CONTRACTOR(Cf. ↑prime contractor)