Promise vs Contract - What's the difference?
promise | contract |
An oath or affirmation; a vow.
A transaction between two persons whereby the first person undertakes in the future to render some service or gift to the second person or devotes something valuable now and here to his use.
* 1668 July 3rd, , “Thomas Rue contra'' Andrew Hou?toun” in ''The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683),
Reason to expect improvement or success; potential.
* Washington Irving
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), chapter=1
, title=(The China Governess) (computing, programming) A placeholder object that can be manipulated in code before it has been assigned a value.
(obsolete) Bestowal or fulfillment of what is promised.
* Bible, Acts i. 4
To commit to something or action; to make an oath; make a vow.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= To give grounds for expectation, especially of something good.
* {{quote-book, year=1897, author=
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=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.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington
, title= (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.
(legal) A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
(informal) An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
(bridge) The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.
(obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
(obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.
* Robert Recorde, , 1557:
(ambitransitive) To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.
* Wordsworth
* Dr. H. More
(grammar) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
To enter into a contract with. (rfex)
To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
* Hakluyt
* Strype
To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.
To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
* Alexander Pope
* Jonathan Swift
To gain or acquire (an illness).
* 1999 , Davidson C. Umeh, Protect Your Life: A Health Handbook for Law Enforcement Professionals (page 69)
To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
* Shakespeare
To betroth; to affiance.
* Shakespeare
Contract is a synonym of promise.
In obsolete terms the difference between promise and contract
is that promise is bestowal or fulfillment of what is promised while contract is not abstract; concrete.In transitive terms the difference between promise and contract
is that promise is to commit to something or action; to make an oath; make a vow while contract is to gain or acquire (an illness).In intransitive terms the difference between promise and contract
is that promise is to give grounds for expectation, especially of something good while contract is to make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.As an adjective contract is
contracted; affianced; betrothed.promise
English
Alternative forms
* promyseNoun
(en noun)pages 547–548
- He pur?ued Andrew Hou?toun upon his promi?e , to give him the like Sallary for the next year, and in ab?ence obtained him to be holden as confe?t and Decerned.
- My native country was full of youthful promise .
citation, passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}
- He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.
Verb
(promis)Engineers of a different kind, passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.
- The clouds promise rain.
citation, passage=I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.}}
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
*See also
* (election promise)Statistics
*External links
* *contract
English
(wikipedia contract)Etymology 1
From (etyl), from (etyl) contract, from (etyl) contractum, past participle of .Noun
(en noun)Keeping the mighty honest, passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}
Hypernyms
* (agreement that is legally binding) agreementHyponyms
* (agreement that is legally binding) bailmentDerived terms
* contractual * fixed-term contract * contract of employmentAdjective
(-)- (Shakespeare)
- But now in eche kinde of these, there are certaine nombers named Ab?tracte'': and other called nombers ''Contracte .
Etymology 2
From (etyl), from (etyl) contracter, from (etyl) contractum, past participle of . the verb developed after the noun, and originally meant only "draw together"; the sense "make a contract with" developed later.Verb
(en verb)- The snail's body contracted into its shell.
- to contract one's sphere of action
- Years contracting to a moment.
- In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties.
- The word "cannot" is often contracted into "can't".
- We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and league with the aforesaid queen.
- Many persons prohibited by law.
- to contract for carrying the mail
- She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.
- to contract a debt
- Each from each contract new strength and light.
- Such behaviour we contract by having much conversed with persons of high stature.
- An officer contracted hepatitis B and died after handling the blood-soaked clothing of a homicide victim
- Thou didst contract and purse thy brow.
- The truth is, she and I, long since contracted , / Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.