to wheel and deal
3
6.9
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
negociar
- At the market, savvy shoppers love to wheel and deal for the best prices on products.
- need to wheel and deal
Examples
-
Successful entrepreneurs often wheel and deal to secure the best opportunities for their businesses.
-
But these days, the more successful courts now wheel and deal.
Academic text (1994) -
You could wheel and deal with anyone.
Fiction book (1991) -
What I'm gonna need is for you all to wheel and deal.
-
It is not at their discretion that they are now having to wheel and deal with insurance.
Blog text (8) -
As China attempts to wheel and deal and Iraq spirals out of control.
Blog text (34) -
Turns out, if you wheel and deal on the Internet, you can find one for $29k with low mileage and all the bells and whistles and get it delivered.
Blog text (10) -
I just don't see how blustering and obstructing or wheeling and dealing over the next four years will do anything to change the minds of the electorate in our favor.
Blog text (6) -
It is always the parents and grandparents wheeling and dealing—some with their children's permission, some without it.
Blog text (16) -
In politics, candidates frequently wheel and deal to gain support from influential donors.
Synonyms
94
3.5
Make an agreement after talking, often in business or politics
1
7.3
To make a deal by talking in a tough, smart way
To negotiate strongly to get a better price or better terms
To argue or bargain to change the price
How Shrewd
382
6.1
- Informal
3
6.9
1
4.6
- Formal
801
3.7
103
2.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The component 'deal' clearly points to negotiation, so a learner who knows that word could infer the phrase relates to making deals; however 'wheel' is metaphorical here (meaning to maneuver or steer matters) rather than its literal sense, and the combined idiomatic nuance of shrewd/energetic maneuvering is not fully predictable. Because part of the meaning is compositional but key pragmatic shades (shrewdness, political/business maneuvering) require prior exposure, this is best classified as semi-transparent.
Etymology
Wheel and deal may come from market sellers who pushed carts with a wheel and quickly dealt with customers while they bargained for goods. So, it now means 'to make deals quickly and cleverly to get an advantage'.