arms deal
10
4.7
- noun
- /ɑrmz dil/
:
acuerdo de venta de armas
- Riyadh is currently linked to arms deals with Washington for at least the next decade.
- billion-dollar arms deal
- negotiate an arms deal
He also witnessed an arms deal go down between the DEA and the Sanola Cartel.
- He also witnessed an arms deal go down between the DEA and the Sanola Cartel.
- Israeli formal Israeli arms deal who sold South Africa the bomb, the atomic bomb.
- President Dwight D Eisenhower wanted to win over NASA but couldn't grant his request for a major arms deal.
Examples
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The Saudis are behind the financing of many arms deals, and in exchange, receive training for their aerial and naval personnel by the Pakistanis.
Academic text (2013) -
For example, in 1981, the Reagan Administration prodded arms merchant Sarkis Soghanalian to broker a $1.4 billion arms deal between Iraq and France.
Academic text (1992) -
The Senate arms deal is dead.
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This is supposed to be an arms deal, Mr. Mazer.
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There's a major arms deal going down.
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You're in the middle of one of the biggest arms deals to ever go down in this town.
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Russia has also been accused of arms deals with Sudan, but it has denied these allegations.
Academic text (2009) -
A few months later, Syria also made an arms deal with the Soviet bloc.
Academic text (2002) -
Much of the illegal conduct that occurs in relation to arms deals remains hidden behind a veil of secrecy.
Blog text (31) -
The government announced a new arms deal with its ally to enhance military cooperation.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an agreement to buy or sell military weapons' is directly and compositionally derived from 'arms' (weapons) + 'deal' (agreement). This noun–noun compound pattern is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE’s meaning.
Etymology
Arms deal comes from a simple image: arms means 'weapons' and a deal is an 'agreement'. Thinking of two countries secretly agreeing to trade weapons helps explain why arms deal means an agreement to buy or sell military weapons.