sweetheart deal

noun

plural sweetheart deals

chiefly US

: an unusually advantageous arrangement or agreement

If they wanted to leave, they could have done so before the stadium expansion and received a sweetheart deal from someplace else.

—Nick Canepa

especially : one that is obtained through personal or business connections or influence

Those shows were produced by the same company that broadcast them, prompting their creators to fret about sweetheart deals …

—Brian Lowry

The company also used its clout to cut through the logjam of carrier requirements that had stifled innovation in the phone industry for years, essentially forcing AT&T into a sweetheart deal that put Apple in the driver's seat.

—Brian X. Chen

Examples of sweetheart deal in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

One low ebb came in 1973 with the loss of many contracts to the Teamsters Union, which struck sweetheart deals with growers. — James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2026

That now looks like a sweetheart deal—a coup for the Brewers. — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026

The case might just come down to which city is willing to offer the best sweetheart deal for an arena and a slew of tax incentives for the Blazers to come. — Esfandiar Baraheni, New York Times, 30 July 2026

To proponents of the new measure, the acquisition would represent a sweetheart deal. — Shomik Mukherjee, Mercury News, 19 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1948, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for sweetheart deal

• bookmobile
• cochineal
• nonideal
• peroneal
• philomel
• snowmobile
• waterwheel
• abele
• alkyl
• anneal
• appeal
• cartwheel