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Glite Dictionary
🤝 To hire out 📄 A legal agreement
to subcontract

to subcontract

9 5.9
To hire another company to do part of a contract you must do
  • verb
  • /ˈsʌb.kən.trækt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : subcontratar
  • The company decided to subcontract the landscaping work to a local firm.
  • subcontracted work
  • subcontract production
  • subcontracting to firms

They are now getting into the business of subcontracting roofs.

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Examples

  • One of the subsystems, the integrated boom, was subcontracted to a Canadian firm.

    Academic text (2009)

  • The customer service is subcontracted by a string of phone bank companies.

    Blog text (8)

  • No, we'll subcontract this one out.

    Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness (2022)

  • Let him subcontract it himself.

    The Killer Elite (1975)

  • So why don't I subcontract to you?

    Shaft (2000)

  • The movers thereafter subcontract to some third party to perform the move.

    Academic text (2018)

  • Instead of being directly engaged by clients, they were often subcontracted by other agencies.

    Blog text (28)

  • Foreign firms continue to dominate; local firms are subcontracting and cutting labor costs.

    Academic text (1991)

  • So NIH would give grants to Eco Health and they would subcontract out to the lab.

    ReasonTV

  • If you're talking about physically putting up towers, VZW and AT&T subcontract nearly all of their towers.

    Blog text (17)

Synonyms

to outsource
vsto subcontract
65 5.3

To hire another company to do work your company usually does

keeps you legally responsible for the original agreement rather than shifting liability
to farm out
vsto subcontract
7 4.9

To pay another person or company to do work for you

still leaves you responsible for meeting the original agreement terms
to contract out
vsto subcontract
2 4.2

Pay an outside company to do work instead of hiring staff

is used when you keep responsibility under the original agreement
to have work done
vsto subcontract
2 3.8

Get a professional to do a job for you

is used when you still hold responsibility under the main agreement
to job
vsto subcontract
  • UK
7.4

To hire another company to do work for you

implies you retain duty to fulfil the original agreement obligations

Antonyms

to retain
236 3.4

To keep having something such as a job or possession

How Delegated

to outsource
65 5.3
to subcontract
  • Specialized
9 5.9
to delegate
45 3.7
to assign
487 2.7
to do
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

subcontract infinitive
subcontracted past
subcontracted past participle
subcontracting present participle
subcontracts third person singular

Morphology

subcontract = contract (transparent) = sub + contract

The verb is formed by prefixing productive 'sub-' to the verb 'contract', meaning to arrange for someone else to perform contractual work.

Etymology

The verb subcontract is built from sub- meaning 'under' and contract meaning 'agreement'. So to subcontract is to give part of your contract to someone else to do.