subcontractor

[ suhb-kon-trak-ter, suhb-kon-, suhb-kuhn-trak-ter ]

noun

1. Law. a person who or business that contracts to provide some service or material necessary for the performance of another's contract.
2. a person or business firm contracted to do part of another's work.

Word History and Origins

Origin of subcontractor¹

First recorded in 1835–45; sub- + contractor

Example Sentences

Auditors who examined the payments said that Intralot claimed credit for paying one local subcontractor $280,000 and another $179,000 for work that the subcontractors actually did not perform themselves, in violation of city rules.

From Washington Post

By mid-May, it was clear Cyber Ninjas and its subcontractors would not be done in time.

From Washington Post

As one example, the union supported Shannon Wait, a data-center technician employed through a subcontractor in South Carolina, through a wrongful suspension this March for speaking to coworkers about her working conditions.

From MIT Technology Review

Although it employs its workers directly rather than using subcontractors, the majority are reportedly hired on a day-to-day basis the night before via an app called “Coupunch,” or on temporary contracts that usually last a few months.

From MIT Technology Review

She noted that no election official or observer was allowed to remain with the machines while Cyber Ninjas and its subcontractors examined them.

From Washington Post

To work at the Navy Yard—even as a subcontractor, as Aaron Alexis was—required a security clearance.

From The Daily Beast

Since then, this subcontractor has been removed from our supplier list.

From The Daily Beast

I also buy the argument that the PA often functions as a “subcontractor” of Israeli security.

From The Daily Beast

Standing with a male subcontractor, he allowed himself a sexist joke: "If it was easy, women would be doing it."

From The Daily Beast

His employer was a certain subcontractor of Tepco, called Nito Resin.

From The Daily Beast

He made them because he supposed the contractor or subcontractor had to make them.

From Project Gutenberg

Perkins was a subcontractor on the route from Rawlins to White River.

From Project Gutenberg

But I defy these gentlemen to find in the law any oath for a subcontractor.

From Project Gutenberg

Before that time the Government had nothing to do with the subcontractor.

From Project Gutenberg

Boone swears that the subcontractor was to have sixty-five per cent.

From Project Gutenberg