horse trade

noun

: negotiation accompanied by shrewd bargaining and reciprocal concessions
a political horse trade
horse-trade intransitive verb
horse trader noun

Examples of horse trade in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The rising profile of McHenry and Emmer is likely bullish for crypto bills, as both work to convince Democrats on their committee—and their counterparts over in the Senate—to horse trade over stablecoin and market structure legislation. Leo Schwartz, Fortune Crypto, 4 Oct. 2023 Congress, by contrast, can hold wide-ranging hearings, issue subpoenas, survey and even commission empirical research, weigh fiscal trade-offs, consider constituent popularity, balance different values and interests, horse trade, negotiate, and forge compromises. Ian MacDougall, Harper’s Magazine , 28 Sep. 2022 Justices horse trade and revise for months on major cases, though they’re not known for flipping sides. Dallas News, 3 May 2022 The blandishments McCarthy might have offered to horse trade his way to the speakership — fancy titles, perks, a fundraising appearance — meant little to those Republican holdouts who would like nothing more than to burn Washington to the ground. Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan. 2023 Krikorian, from the restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies, argued DACA recipients could have gotten green cards by now, if Democrats had been willing to horse trade for tougher enforcement. Dallas News, 18 July 2022 In the early 1960s, the bistate agency took over what was then the struggling Hudson and Manhattan Railroad as part of a horse trade between New Jersey and New York that committed the Port to build the first World Trade Center. Paul Berger, WSJ, 30 Nov. 2018

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'horse trade.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1846, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of horse trade was in 1846

Dictionary Entries Near horse trade

Cite this Entry

“Horse trade.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/horse%20trade. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

horse trade

noun
: bargaining marked by clever careful dealing by both sides
horse-trade verb
horse trader noun

More from Merriam-Webster on horse trade

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!