Bribe a vet with a new contract (10)
I believe the answer is:
abbreviate
'contract' is the definition.
('abbreviate' can be a synonym of 'contract')
'bribe a vet with a new' is the wordplay.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'new' is an anagram indicator.
'bribe'+'a'+'vet'+'a'='bribeaveta'
'bribeaveta' anagrammed gives 'ABBREVIATE'.
(Other definitions for abbreviate that I've seen before include "Shorten (a word)" , "Shorten (text)" .)