contractor (kontraktor)

[ All matches are dangerous and inconvenient where Sir R. L'Estrange. the contractors are not equals. Specifically-2. One who contracts or covenants, either with a government or other public body or with private parties, to furnish supplies, or to construct works or erect buildings, or to perform any work or service, at a certain price or rate: as, a paving-contrac tor; a labor-contractor.-3. A muscle which contracts or le ens the size of a part; a constrictor. Contractor tracheæ, in ornith., the contractor of the windpipe, a muscle lying along the trachea, whose action shortens the windpipe by drawing the tracheal rings closer together, and also drags the whole structure backward by being attached to the clavicle or sternum. See sternotrachealis. Independent contractor, as distinguished from servant or employee, a person following a regular independent employment, who offers his services to the public to accept orders and execute commi ions for all who may employ him in a certain line of duty, using his own means for the purpose, and being accountable only for final performance. Cooley, Torts (ed. 1878), p. 549. contractual (kon-trak'tū-al), a. [=F.contrac tuel, The recognition of simple consent as creative of a con tractual bond. Encyc . Brit ., XX . 703, The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: The Century dictionary contracture Ma age is of more value in the prevention than in the cure of contractures, stiffne , and anchylosis. Buck's Handbook of Med. Sciences , IV. 658. A strong contracture of the foot produced in one of them certainly reappeared in the other. E. Gurney, Mind, XII. 420. 21. Taking; catching: as, contracture of a fever. contractured (kon-trak'turd), a. [ contracture; constricted. A preliminary stretching of the contractured canal. Med. News, XLVII. 617.