as in negotiating
to talk over or dispute the terms of a purchase
I horse-traded with the painter: I did his tax returns, and he did my kitchen
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as in negotiation
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Recent Examples of horse trading
Tom Kertscher, jsonline.com, 5 Sep. 2025
Paul Vallas, Chicago Tribune, 29 Aug. 2025
There’s plenty of horse-trading still to do, but the fundamentals of their $20 trillion economy are set.
—Filip Timotija, The Hill, 30 July 2025
Verb
Both sides have priorities, and there is horse trading and eventually compromise, at least on some issues.
—Tom Kertscher, jsonline.com, 5 Sep. 2025
Noun
This horse-trading process lacks any moral code or transparency.
—Paul Vallas, Chicago Tribune, 29 Aug. 2025
There’s plenty of horse-trading still to do, but the fundamentals of their $20 trillion economy are set.
—Filip Timotija, The Hill, 30 July 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for horse trading
Verb
-
While major pro sports leagues feature a stable arrangement, with unionized players negotiating a CBA and collectively bargained terms exempt from antitrust scrutiny, the opposite is true in college sports.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
4 Oct. 2025
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The official also said that a negotiating team was getting ready to travel, but there was no date specified.—
Jessica Coacci,
Fortune,
4 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Fast forward to this month when Tooley was accused of dealing 100 grams of crack cocaine near Fields Corner in Dorchester, just a short distance away from his legal firm Adapt & Evolve LLC.—
Rick Sobey,
Boston Herald,
26 Sep. 2025
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In São Paulo, the NFL star inadvertently collided with star wide receiver Xavier Worthy in the opening minutes, injuring the Texas product and dealing yet another blow to the team’s depth chart at WR, since Rashee Rice is serving a six-game suspension pegged to a high-speed car crash in 2024.—
Anna Lazarus Caplan,
PEOPLE,
22 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Sernatinger said the union hopes to begin bargaining in October, after settling a dispute with Pathfinders management over which positions were covered under OPEIU Local 39.—
Francesca Pica,
jsonline.com,
19 Sep. 2025
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Contenders for the leadership of Brazil’s right wing coalition are already emerging and are bargaining for Bolsonaro’s endorsement for being presidential candidates in the 2026 elections.—
Adriana Carranca,
Time,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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In their place is the attention economy, a dystopian marketplace of slop merchants, brain-rot peddlers, AI scrapyards, and extortionate big-box streaming services with junk on the shelves, all haggling for your time and money.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
15 Sep. 2025
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Whether gazing from Gellért Hill or haggling for paprika in the Great Market Hall—the city reveals itself in fragments—intimate, contradictory, and impossible to forget.—
Lewis Nunn,
Forbes.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Jennifer Aniston’s Alex Levy, Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley Jackson, and the other members of The Morning Show’s newsroom and its network are once again bickering and backstabbing.—
Emma Alpern,
Vulture,
11 Sep. 2025
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Coaches are also bickering about money, a topic that would have felt out of place 10 years ago.—
Eben Novy-Williams,
Sportico.com,
5 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Horse trading.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/horse%20trading. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
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