gentlemen's agreement

American  

Or gentleman's agreement

noun

1. an agreement that, although unenforceable at law, is binding as a matter of personal honor.

2. an unwritten agreement by a socially prominent clique, private club, etc., to discriminate against or refuse to accept members of certain religious, racial, national, or other groups.

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gentlemen's agreement British  

noun

1. a personal understanding or arrangement based on honour and not legally binding

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Etymology

Origin of gentlemen's agreement

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gentlemen's agreement

In 2022, Switzerland's federal criminal court in Bellinzona cleared the two after accepting their account of a "gentlemen's agreement" for the payment.

From BBC ● Mar. 3, 2025

Oxfam similarly criticized an “old gentlemen’s agreement of World Bank and IMF appointments,” saying it should have been a more transparent and merit-based global process.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 23, 2023

They’re in a written gentlemen’s agreement, somewhere, that Punchbowl News devilishly described as the “secret three-page addendum.”

From Slate ● Jan. 9, 2023

“We made a gentlemen’s agreement that we’ll play and then we’ll figure it out,” Olivas said.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 30, 2021

Now she learned of that gentlemen's agreement among nations, and that it said: "The use of poison or of poisoned weapons is forbidden."

From The Amazing Interlude by Rinehart, Mary Roberts