Subcontract
noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A portion of a contracted project that is contracted out in turn.
"2010, Cristina T. Chaplain, Defense Acquisitions: Additional Guidance Needed to Improve Visibility into the Structure and Management of Major Weapon System Subcontracts, US Government Accountability Office Once the prime contract has been awarded, “major” subcontractors typically remain the same over the life cycle of the program—from development to production—even if the subcontracts were originally competed."
- 2 a contract assigning to another party some obligations of a prior contract wordnet
- 1 To contract out portions of a larger contracted project. ambitransitive
- 2 work under a subcontract; engage in a subcontract wordnet
- 3 arranged for contracted work to be done by others wordnet
Example
More examples"2010, Cristina T. Chaplain, Defense Acquisitions: Additional Guidance Needed to Improve Visibility into the Structure and Management of Major Weapon System Subcontracts, US Government Accountability Office Once the prime contract has been awarded, “major” subcontractors typically remain the same over the life cycle of the program—from development to production—even if the subcontracts were originally competed."
Etymology
From sub- + contract.
More for "subcontract"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.