a raw deal

noun

: unfair treatment
We're getting a raw deal with the new tax laws.

Examples of a raw deal in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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From our 21st-century perch, most contemporary women have no trouble believing that the great women writers of the 19th century got a raw deal. Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 4 Mar. 2026 Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday dismissed the Board of Peace as a raw deal for Israel and called for its dissolution. Samy Magdy, Fortune, 19 Jan. 2026 Progressive advocates blasted Democrats for supporting the map and called it a raw deal for Cincinnati voters in particular. Haley Bemiller, Cincinnati Enquirer, 24 Nov. 2025 Its songs are filled with workingmen getting a raw deal—losing a job, losing a mortgaged house to a bank, owing money, accepting work for a gangster, bearing the burden of a boss’s disfavor, being broke and turning to crime, trying to live with the trauma of military service in the Vietnam War. Richard Brody, New Yorker, 23 Oct. 2025 Listen to him bum-rush a workers’ union meeting and begin describing, with over-enthusiastic earnestness, how dogs get a raw deal. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 17 Oct. 2025 Oldest kids always get a raw deal. Andre Mouchard, Oc Register, 4 Aug. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“A raw deal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/a%20raw%20deal. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026.

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