horse trade
1 Americannoun
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a shrewdly conducted exchange, as of favors or objects, usually resulting from or accompanied by very close bargaining.
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an exchanging or trading of horses.
verb (used without object)
Etymology
Origin of horse trade1
An Americanism dating back to 1840–50
Origin of horse-trade2
An Americanism dating back to 1820–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“A Rocky Mountain trade chain had carried horses to the Northwestern Plains by the 1730s. … The horse trade ignited a technological revolution that reconfigured several Indigenous worlds within a generation.”
From Science Magazine • Mar. 29, 2023
Then, over the weekend, lawmakers agreed to an even more revealing horse trade.
From Washington Post • Dec. 21, 2020
Some of the most heavily fished species are classified as threatened with extinction, but the sea horse trade, like everything else I’d seen in this market, is legal.
From Slate • Nov. 9, 2018
The horse trade has its ups and downs – as I write this, it’s down, the worst in my lifetime.
From The Guardian • Jun. 8, 2018
Under a system of coinage, inequalities in exchange are easily adjusted, like “the boot” in a horse trade, or the balance between produce carried to the store and the articles carried away.
From Rural Health and Welfare by Fairchild, George Thompson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
