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
-
-
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
Into the dawn debates and dickers roared and muttered.
From Time Magazine Archive
Kassem has prudently allowed the foreign oil company to continue production, thus assuring himself of a continuing income while he dickers for help in getting his own company on its feet.
From Time Magazine Archive
Perkins says in his office as the city council dickers over his recommendation to find somewhere other than city property to plant Forrest.
From Time Magazine Archive
He dickers in animals a little; trains 'em and has 'em doing things right away.
From David Lannarck, Midget An Adventure Story by George S. Harney
But the deadline elapsed while U.S. and Russian diplomats dickered over the terms.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 20, 2016
Sir Stamford Raffles, dickered the island away from the Sultan of Johore's heir.
From Time Magazine Archive
He dickered desperately for a $125 million loan from the U.S., violated the nationalism that he himself had urged by trying to swing a deal with Standard Oil of California to exploit Argentine oil.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
“I thought Boyle’d dickered you out of this claim before now,” said Shanklin, looking around warily.
From Claim Number One by George W. (George Washington) Ogden
The frenzy of last-minute dickering over the new law, SHB 1240, is a sign of its import.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 20, 2023
That opened the process to almost infinite legal dickering.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2023
The end result of the pay commission has been time and money wasted in court dickering over details that should have been hashed out publicly on the floor of the state Legislature.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 11, 2019
The dickering played out for hours Wednesday, even after top congressional leaders left a morning meeting on a snowy Capitol Hill declaring that a deal was at hand.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 21, 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
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