contract out
phr. v..phr. v.. to pay another company or person to do a specific job instead of doing it yourself.
phr. v.. to delegate a specific task or service to an external provider via a formal agreement; often used in corporate or governmental contexts regarding outsourcing.
The city decided to contract out the trash collection.
Small businesses often contract out their accounting to save money on full-time staff.
The government faced public criticism after it chose to contract out the management of local prisons to a private security firm with a questionable track record.
- Particles
- out
- Separability
- optional
- Pattern
- contract + out + object
usually followed by 'to' when mentioning the recipient of the work.
contrast with 'outsource'; while 'outsource' is the general business trend, 'contract out' focuses on the specific legal or formal act of assigning a task.
They contracted out the work for a local firm.They contracted out the work to a local firm.use the preposition 'to' to indicate the person or company receiving the contract.