🚫 Restricting competition 📄 A legal contract

non-compete

7.3

Stopping a person from working for a rival company after leaving a job

adjective
/nɒn kəmˈpiːt/

Formal

: no competencia

The non-compete clause restricted him from joining a rival firm.

Examples

A non-compete clause can limit your job options after leaving a company.
She signed a non-compete agreement with her former employer.
The company required all employees to sign a non-compete agreement before starting work.
Many professionals are cautious about accepting non-compete terms in their contracts.
The company required all employees to sign a non-compete agreement before starting work.
Many professionals are cautious about accepting non-compete terms in their contracts.
A non-compete clause can limit your job options after leaving a company.

Antonyms

free market policy

Formal

1 4.1

A way of running an economy that lets businesses compete with little government control

How Restrictive

to ban

Formal

484 1.4

non-compete

Formal

7.3

restriction

340 3.0

Surface Forms

non-compete positive

Morphology

non-compete = compete (semi-transparent) = non + compete

Form is clearly non- + compete, but the specialised legal meaning ('a restriction preventing employment or starting a business') is an extended sense not fully predictable from a literal 'not compete' by all learners.

Etymology

Non-compete combines non- meaning 'not' and compete meaning 'to try to win', as in competition. So a non-compete clause or rule stops someone from working for or starting a rival company.