different between bunch vs contract

English

Etymology

From Middle English bunche, bonche (“hump, swelling”), of uncertain origin.

Perhaps a variant of *bunge (compare dialectal bung (“heap, grape bunch”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunk?, *bunkô, *bung? (“heap, crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?en??-, *b?éng??us (“thick, dense, fat”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Bunke (“bone”), West Frisian bonke (“bone, lump, bump”), Dutch bonk (“lump, bone”), Low German Bunk (“bone”), German Bunge (“tuber”), Danish bunke (“heap, pile”), Faroese bunki (“heap, pile”); Hittite [Term?] (/panku/, “total, entire”), Tocharian B pkante (“volume, fatness”), Lithuanian búož? (“knob”), Ancient Greek ????? (pakhús, “thick”), Sanskrit ??? (bahú, “thick; much”)).

Alternatively, perhaps from a variant or diminutive of bump (compare hump/hunch, lump/lunch, etc.); or from dialectal Old French bonge (“bundle”) (compare French bongeau, bonjeau, bonjot), from West Flemish bondje, diminutive of West Flemish bond (“bundle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?nt?/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Noun

bunch (plural bunches)

1. A group of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.
2. (cycling) The peloton; the main group of riders formed during a race.
3. An informal body of friends.

   • “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, […], the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"

4. (US, informal) A considerable amount.

5. (informal) An unmentioned amount; a number.

6. (forestry) A group of logs tied together for skidding.
7. (geology, mining) An unusual concentration of ore in a lode or a small, discontinuous occurrence or patch of ore in the wallrock.
   • 1874, David Page, Economic Geology: Or, Geology in Its Relations to the Arts and Manufactures

     The ore may be disseminated throughout the matrix in minute particles, as gold in quartz; in parallel threads, strings, and plates, as with copper; in irregular pockets or bunches

8. (textiles) The reserve yarn on the filling bobbin to allow continuous weaving between the time of indication from the midget feeler until a new bobbin is put in the shuttle.
9. An unfinished cigar, before the wrapper leaf is added.

10. A protuberance; a hunch; a knob or lump; a hump.

Synonyms

• (group of similar things): cluster, group
• (informal body of friends): pack, group, gang, circle
• (unusual concentration of ore): ore pocket, pocket, pocket of ore, kidney, nest, nest of ore, ore bunch, bunch of ore

Derived terms

• buncha (bunch of)

Translations

Verb

bunch (third-person singular simple present bunches, present participle bunching, simple past and past participle bunched)

1. (transitive) To gather into a bunch.
2. (transitive) To gather fabric into folds.
3. (intransitive) To form a bunch.
4. (intransitive) To be gathered together in folds
5. (intransitive) To protrude or swell
   • 1728, John Woodward, An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England

     Bunching out into a large round knob at one end.

Synonyms

• (form a bunch): cluster, group

Derived terms

• bunch up

Translations

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English, from Old French contract, from Latin contractum, past participle of contrahere (“to bring together, to bring about, to conclude a bargain”), from con- (“with, together”) + trahere (“to draw, to pull”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?n'tr?kt
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?nt?ækt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?k?nt?ækt/

Noun

contract (plural contracts)

1. 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.

   Synonyms: compact, pact
2. (law) 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.
3. (law) A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
4. (informal) An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.

5. (bridge) The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.

Synonyms

• (part of legal studies): contract law

Hypernyms

• (agreement that is legally binding): agreement

Hyponyms

• (agreement that is legally binding): bailment

Derived terms

• contract of employment
• contractual
• fixed-term contract

Translations

Adjective

contract (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
2. (obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.

Etymology 2

From Middle English, from Middle French contracter, from Latin contractum, past participle of contrahere (“to bring together, to bring about, to conclude a bargain”), from con- (“with, together”) + trahere (“to draw, to pull”). The verb developed after the noun, and originally meant only "draw together"; the sense "make a contract with" developed later.

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?ntr?kt, IPA^(key): /k?n?t?ækt/

Verb

contract (third-person singular simple present contracts, present participle contracting, simple past and past participle contracted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) 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

   • 1835, William Wordsworth, The Armenian Lady's Love

     Years contracting to a moment.

   • 1675, Richard Allestree, The Government of the Tongue

     We see in all things how desuetude do's contract and narrow our faculties.

2. (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".

3. (transitive) To enter into a contract with. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
4. (transitive) To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.

   • We have contracted an inviolable amitie, peace, and league with the aforesaid Queene.

   • 1721, John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials

     Many persons […] had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity […] prohibited by law.

5. (intransitive) To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.

   to contract for carrying the mail

6. (transitive) To bring on; to incur; to acquire.

   She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.

   to contract a debt

   • 1717, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Mr. Jervas

     Each from each contract new strength and light.

   • c. 1703-1720, Jonathan Swift, An Essay on the Fates of Clergymen

     That kind of behaviour, which we contract by having too much conversation with persons of high station.

7. (transitive) 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 […]

8. To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
9. To betroth; to affiance.

Synonyms

• (lessen): abate, decrease, lessen, reduce
• (shorten): shorten, shrink
• (gain or acquire (an illness)): catch, get

Antonyms

• (lessen): increase, expand
• (shorten): grow, lengthen

Translations

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch contract, from Old French contract, from Latin contractum, past participle of contrah? (“to bring together, to bring about, to conclude a bargain”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?tr?kt/
• Hyphenation: con?tract
• Rhymes: -?kt

Noun

contract n (plural contracten, diminutive contractje n)

1. contract

Synonyms

• overeenkomst

Derived terms

• arbeidscontract
• contractarbeider
• contractbreuk
• handelscontract
• huurcontract
• koopcontract

Related terms

• contracteren
• contractueel

Descendants

• Afrikaans: kontrak
• ? Indonesian: kontrak
• ? West Frisian: kontrakt

Romanian

Etymology

From French contrat, from Latin contractus.

Noun

contract n (plural contracte)

1. contract

Declension

Scots

Etymology

From English contract.

Noun

contract (plural contracts)

1. contract

Welsh

Etymology

From English contract.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?ntrakt/

Noun

contract m (plural contractau)

1. contract

   Synonym: cytundeb

Mutation

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present) , “contract”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies