ppl. a. and sb. [ad. L. contrahent-em, pr. pple. of contrahĕre to CONTRACT.]
A. adj. Contracting, entering into a contract.
1524. Hen. VIII., Instr., in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. App. xiii. 26. Treaties concluded … betwixt the Kings Highness, themperour, and the French King, as Princes contrahents.
a. 1638. Mede, Disc. Ps. cxii. 6. Wks. 1672, I. 82. One suiting with the one party contrahent, the other with the other.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., III. xv. 335. Henry had found that he was not, after all, to be admitted as a party contrahent.
B. sb. A contracting party.
1524. Hen. VIII., Instr., in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. App. xiii. 27. Themperour, being oon of the principal contrahents in the said treatie.
c. 1575. Sir J. Balfour, Practicks (1754), 29. Ane contract or obligatioun … confirmit be the aith or fide media of the contrahentis.
