deal in
Idioms-
Also, deal with . Be occupied or concerned with, as in Jim deals in generalities , or This book deals with idioms . The first term dates from the late 1500s, the variant from about 1300.
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Do business or trade in something, as in They deal in diamonds . [Late 1500s] Also see deal with .
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deal someone in . Also, deal one a hand . Include someone, give someone a share, as in I hope they'll deal me in on this new enterprise . This usage comes from card games, where to deal has meant “to distribute cards” since the 16th century. [Early 1900s]
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.
The last live hostages were freed a year ago as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal in which Hamas stopped firing into Israel.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
Yet the deep selloff gripping the $31.5 trillion Treasury market isn’t putting the year’s biggest M&A deal in jeopardy.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
"Chagos deal in doubt" says the Independent, as "president hails PM in first meeting as 'businessperson' who 'gets it'." It carries the same photo of the seated pair with the caption "historic handshake".
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Prosecutors decided to retry the case, and Sung agreed to a plea deal in lieu of another court battle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
He’d been a big deal in the army—a major in the Special Air Service, Australia’s equivalent of the Green Berets.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
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.
