Vow vs Contract - What's the difference?
vow | contract |
A solemn promise to perform some act, or behave in a specified manner, especially a promise to live and act in accordance with the rules of a religious order.
A declaration or assertion.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=
, volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (ambitransitive) To make a vow; to promise.
* Bible, Eccl. v. 4
* Richard Baxter
To make a vow regarding (something).
To declare publicly that one has made a vow, usually to show one's determination or to announce an act of retaliation.
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
In ambitransitive terms the difference between vow and contract
is that vow is to make a vow; to promise while contract is to draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.In transitive terms the difference between vow and contract
is that vow is to make a vow regarding (something) while contract is to gain or acquire (an illness).As an adjective contract is
contracted; affianced; betrothed.vow
English
Noun
(en noun)Sam Leith
Where the profound meets the profane, passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.}}
Usage notes
* One normally makes'' or ''takes'' a vow, or simply ''vows (see below). * Commonly mentioned vows include those of silence'', ''obedience'', ''poverty'', ''chastity'', and ''celibacy . * 'to keep/pay/fulfill a vow' = to honor a vow * 'to break a vow' = to dishonor a vowVerb
(en verb)- When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it.
- We do not vow that we will never sin, nor neglect a duty (nor ought we to do so).
- The wronged woman vowed revenge.
- The rebels vowed to continue their fight.
Derived terms
* exchange vows * take vows * vow of celibacy * vow of chastity * vow of silence * vow of povertyExternal links
* * *Anagrams
*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.