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
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contractor UK US /kənˈtræktər/ 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)
Financial and business terms. 2012.