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horse trading
noun
- the act or fact of conducting a shrewd exchange or engaging in a horse trade; bargaining.
horse trading
noun
- hard bargaining to obtain equal concessions by both sides in a dispute
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Word History and Origins
Origin of horse trading1
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Idioms and Phrases
Negotiation marked by hard bargaining and shrewd exchange. For example, The restaurant owner is famous for his horse trading; he's just exchanged a month of free dinners for a month of free television commercials . This expression alludes to the notorious shrewdness of horse traders , who literally bought and sold horses. [c. 1820]Discover More
Example Sentences
Israeli politics will now devolve into a fierce period of horse-trading, double dealing, and speculation.
Tuesday night, as the committee vote on contempt came closer, there was an effort at some old-fashioned backroom horse-trading.
The word "horse-trading" in politics is not meant to be understood literally after all.
Andrew Roberts on the horse-trading ahead—and the financial Armageddon to come.
The leadership may have to dangle choice committee assignments to complete the steal, and engage in other kinds of horse-trading.
High-priced stock is rare here, hence there is little horse-trading of the swindling variety, and no horse thieving.
They indulged in horse-trading and played politics to a certain extent, but the lines of demarcation were sharper.
Children loved him, and he sneaked away from work to tell them improbable stories of sea-faring and horse-trading and bears.
The preacher who led the meeting is saturated with tobacco and addicted to horse-trading and worldly foolish jesting.
The former make an open business of horse-trading, and the latter of public-dancing, singing, and fortune-telling.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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