dicker
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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dickers,
present (3rd person singular)
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dickered,
past participle, past
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dickering
present participle
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to deal, swap, or trade with petty bargaining; bargain; haggle.
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to barter.
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to try to arrange matters by mutual bargaining.
They dickered for hours over some of the finer points of the contract.
noun
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a petty bargain.
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a barter or swap.
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an item or goods bartered or swapped.
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a deal, especially a political deal.
noun
verb
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to trade (goods) by bargaining; barter
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(intr) to negotiate a political deal
noun
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a petty bargain or barter
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the item or items bargained or bartered
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a political deal or bargain
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dickersimple
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dickerssimple
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have dickeredperfect
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has dickeredperfect
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am dickeringprogressive
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are dickeringprogressive
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is dickeringprogressive
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have been dickeringperfect progressive
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has been dickeringperfect progressive
Past
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dickeredsimple
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had dickeredperfect
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was dickeringprogressive
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were dickeringprogressive
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had been dickeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dicker1
An Americanism dating back to 1795–1805; perhaps verb use of dicker 2
Origin of dicker2
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English diker, deker, from Old French dacre and Medieval Latin dikeria, dacra; ultimately from Latin decuria decury
Explanation
To dicker is to haggle or bargain. When you buy something at a yard sale, you often have to dicker over the price. When you dicker, you negotiate, often with some arguing or going back and forth. Your new dog walker might dicker with you over how many walks your dog needs each day, and a savvy kid will dicker with her grandmother over how many cookies she's allowed to have after lunch. The word is purely American, from the early 1800s, possibly from the old fashioned noun dicker, which was once a unit of trade that meant "a set of ten hides."
Vocabulary lists containing dicker
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.
See Examples For:
And Europeans will think that they have a license to dicker with China, too.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 1, 2023
The celebrity may dicker over the price, but ultimately reach an agreement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2021
Watching Matt Carpenter dicker and eye-roll over balls and strikes like he's Ted Williams.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 11, 2012
But we will cease to bargain and dicker over merit aid awards once offered, including requests to match or exceed another institution’s merit aid offer.
From New York Times ● Feb. 18, 2011
“I’m in no mood for a lengthy dicker, Kaerva,” I said shortly.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
As the U.S. dickers over decontamination—not to mention reparations or reconciliation—organizers in Palomares promise openness and honesty, despite all the commercial advantages of keeping quiet.
From Time ● Jan. 16, 2015
After weeks of maneuvers, dickers, deals and stage-setting.
From Time Magazine Archive
Together they organized the Czech Mafia, a secret band of patriots who spied throughout Austria-Hungary during the War, providing Benes with material which he made the substance of dickers with the Allies.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Mercantile Trust Co. and the National Bank of Commerce, both in St. Louis, made dickers last week, preliminary to a consolidation.
From Time Magazine Archive
One or two players had not yet arrived, "dickers" being under way for their purchase.
From Baseball Joe in the Big League or, A Young Pitcher's Hardest Struggles by Lester Chadwick
But the deadline elapsed while U.S. and Russian diplomats dickered over the terms.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 20, 2016
Last summer the pavilions at the Venice Biennale and the attics of Germany's Dokumenta III dickered and chattered with electrically driven, and even electronically musical, kinetic op.
From Time Magazine Archive
Dag Hammarskjold dickered endlessly with the Congo's erratic politicians.
From Time Magazine Archive
The U.S., which had 40 negotiators working in relays, dickered for lower duties abroad on U.S. tobacco, foodstuffs and autos.
From Time Magazine Archive
Not that I've ever taken a dollar for my personal pocket, for I haven't; but I've bought and sold and dickered and schemed with the best of 'em, and the worst of 'em.
From The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush by Francis Lynde
But nothing said at this point can be separated from the bluffing and haggling and dickering central to such high-dollar negotiations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2024
The frenzy of last-minute dickering over the new law, SHB 1240, is a sign of its import.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 20, 2023
I enjoyed looking, and I enjoyed considering, and I enjoyed dickering, and now I’m gloating a bit over my new old things.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 13, 2022
Such lawsuits “are taking advantage of a loophole” that a new state law would close if Lansing’s lawmakers support it this fall, after more than a year of dickering, LaMacchia said.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 14, 2018
One light from the ceiling was still hanging down by a wire, dickering and swinging back and forth, and every once in a while I could see stuff inside.
From "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis
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.
