wheeling and dealing
dubious business or political negotiations
TRANSLATION
wheeling and dealing = die Geschäftemacherei, die Mauschelei, die Kungelei wheel and deal = mauscheln, kungeln wheeler and dealer = der Mauschler --- GOOGLE INDEX wheeling and dealing: approximately 2,000,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Filmmaker Andreas Hoessli brought a camera crew to New York City and spent a year following the WHEELING AND DEALING at the stock exchange and capturing the ideas and motives of the traders who work there.
(New York Times)
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Despite his reputation for idealism, he has also shown a pragmatic side, having worked for both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and was known for closed-door WHEELING AND DEALING while serving on the City Council.
(BusinessWeek magazine)
(New York Times)
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Despite his reputation for idealism, he has also shown a pragmatic side, having worked for both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and was known for closed-door WHEELING AND DEALING while serving on the City Council.
(BusinessWeek magazine)
Did you
know?
wheeling and dealing
idiom
- complicated and sometimes dishonest agreements in business or politics that people try to achieve in order to make profits or get advantages
(Cambridge Dictionaries)
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According to the 1997 edition of the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson, the expression "wheeling and dealing" originated from the gaming houses of the 18th-century American West where a big wheeler and dealer was a heavy bettor at cards and the roulette wheels.
Through this tradition and the association of a "big wheel" as the man (or wheel) who makes the vehicle (things) run, the expression came to mean a big-time operator by the early 1940s, usually with a less-than-honest connotation; the wheeler dealer being the type who runs over anything in his path with no regard for rules of the road.
Another interesting suggestion about the origin of "wheeling and dealing" has to do with the UK’s largest inland fish market called Billingsgate Market. According to this theory, the phrase stems from how the fish are "wheeled" in with wheelbarrows before the "dealing" (price negotiations) starts.
Since the expression is first recorded in America, this theory is a less likely candidate for the real origin and sounds more like a "fish story."
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SYNONYMS
negotiations, deal-making, backroom dealing, bargaining, dealings, haggling
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Buying a used car sometimes involves a lot of wheeling and dealing."
idiom
- complicated and sometimes dishonest agreements in business or politics that people try to achieve in order to make profits or get advantages
(Cambridge Dictionaries)
---
According to the 1997 edition of the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson, the expression "wheeling and dealing" originated from the gaming houses of the 18th-century American West where a big wheeler and dealer was a heavy bettor at cards and the roulette wheels.
Through this tradition and the association of a "big wheel" as the man (or wheel) who makes the vehicle (things) run, the expression came to mean a big-time operator by the early 1940s, usually with a less-than-honest connotation; the wheeler dealer being the type who runs over anything in his path with no regard for rules of the road.
Another interesting suggestion about the origin of "wheeling and dealing" has to do with the UK’s largest inland fish market called Billingsgate Market. According to this theory, the phrase stems from how the fish are "wheeled" in with wheelbarrows before the "dealing" (price negotiations) starts.
Since the expression is first recorded in America, this theory is a less likely candidate for the real origin and sounds more like a "fish story."
---
SYNONYMS
negotiations, deal-making, backroom dealing, bargaining, dealings, haggling
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Buying a used car sometimes involves a lot of wheeling and dealing."
