bargaining chip

noun

1. something, as a concession or inducement, that can be used in negotiating.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bargaining chip¹

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

Commissioner Fred Kosmo said in last week’s meeting that all the District 9 tweaking left him feeling like underrepresented communities were being treated as “bargaining chips.”

From Voice of San Diego

Beijing had always denied the two cases were linked, but the timing of their release fuels Western accusations that the men were bargaining chips, held to help secure Meng’s eventual release.

From Time

Remote work is already a bargaining chip in job recruiting and negotiations, says Hackston.

From Washington Post

Now researchers at Northwestern University are suggesting new ways to redress this power imbalance by treating our collective data as a bargaining chip.

From MIT Technology Review

Many men withhold it as a bargaining chip for civil divorce proceedings.

From Ozy

That victory for the tab became a bargaining chip in all future dealings with the superstar.

From The Daily Beast

“Energy is used as precisely this bargaining chip,” Brown concedes.

From The Daily Beast

Barack Obama may have a new bargaining chip in negotiations over the debt limit.

From The Daily Beast

Gun control advocates have told me the assault weapons ban was intended to be a bargaining chip.

From The Daily Beast

Instead of seeing it as a bargaining chip, perhaps we should treat the GOP proposal as a serious governing document.

From The Daily Beast

Related Words

• leverage