copper-bottomed deal
- noun
- UK
:
acuerdo seguro
- She wanted nothing less than a copper-bottomed deal before agreeing to the partnership.
Examples
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With such strong guarantees, the contract was considered a copper-bottomed deal by everyone involved.
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The company offered a copper-bottomed deal to attract new investors.
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This is a copper-bottomed deal that you can trust.
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The investors were thrilled to find a copper-bottomed deal.
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Before investing her savings, she insisted on a copper-bottomed deal to ensure her money was safe.
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The proposal included a copper-bottomed deal that guaranteed profits for all parties involved.
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They felt reassured by the copper-bottomed deal promised by the reputable firm.
Synonyms
1
4.6
A legally binding deal that is very hard to break
Antonyms
- Specialized
12
6.8
Not protected by property the lender can take if the borrower does not pay
How Secure
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense ‘guaranteed, risk-free’ is not a straightforward composition of 'copper' (a metal) + 'bottomed' (having a bottom) + 'deal' (agreement); the adjective 'copper-bottomed' is a historical/metaphorical lexical item (from copper-sheathed hulls implying reliability) and thus the securing sense is not predictable from the parts. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words but has not seen the idiom would likely not infer the guaranteed/reliable meaning.
Etymology
The idiom copper-bottomed deal comes from old ships that had copper on their bottoms to stop damage and keep them safe at sea, so 'copper-bottomed' came to mean 'safe and sure' and a copper-bottomed deal is an agreement that is guaranteed and without risk.