Definition of horse-trading in English:

noun

• 1The buying and selling of horses.

  ‘Appleby is famous around the world for its annual New Horse Fair, where gypsies and travellers from across the country and Europe gather for a week of horse-trading and celebrations.’

  1. 1.1Hard and shrewd bargaining, especially in politics.
     ‘we will win with no horse-trading or electoral pacts’
     More example sentences

     • ‘After much haggling and horse-trading, a compromise is hammered out that satisfies few but allows each minister to claim that it could have been much worse.’
     • ‘The argument used to be that additional budgets diminished the credibility of the main budget and the planning system in general since ministers could always indulge in further horse-trading throughout the year.’
     • ‘But I suspect it's largely beside the point because once you're to that point you're into a process of legislative horse-trading and conference committees.’
     • ‘Muslims would have scolded their leaders for selling out, Hindus would have lambasted theirs for cheapening a noble cause with such horse-trading, but in the end, everybody would have accepted it.’
     • ‘There's no horse-trading, no brilliant orchestration of competing interests to reveal a previously unthought of solution, that is going to reconcile those sets of goals.’
     • ‘Meanwhile, Karzai has repeatedly said that ‘the time of horse-trading is over’ and that he does not expect warlords to have a strong voice in his cabinet.’
     • ‘Details of the plan emerged as Labour and Lib Dem MSPs met separately to discuss coalition terms ahead of horse-trading in a series of face-to-face talks scheduled to begin on Tuesday and run into next week.’
     • ‘Once public participation has ended, the election process quickly turns into horse-trading, which seems to have become the trademark of Indonesian politics.’
     • ‘A significant reason for this was horse-trading between the Germans and the French who historically had been associated with Croatia and Serbia respectively.’
     • ‘Yes, it would expose the unseemly work of legislative horse-trading without which successful coalition and law-making may not be possible.’
     • ‘It has resulted in horse-trading, grandstanding and double-bluffing; in debates about how to protect the rights of the minority from the power of the majority.’
     • ‘EU leaders were gathering in Brussels last night promising there would be no repeat of the undignified horse-trading of their last treaty in Nice.’
     • ‘Some last-minute horse-trading is inevitable.’
     • ‘If the court's finding is upheld, such deals will become a matter for Brussels, which will result in a new round of prolonged horse-trading with Washington.’
     • ‘This novel idea turns decades of horse-trading upon its head, and at its heart is the simple truth that Scottish rugby is too small to succeed unless it is united in purpose.’
     • ‘Single-party rule will put an end to coalitions and horse-trading.’
     • ‘Now their argument goes to Brussels, where horse-trading between European states will decide the fate of Scottish fishing.’
     • ‘There was feverish horse-trading between party whips about the format of the set-piece debate.’
     • ‘The most difficult horse-trading may revolve around cabinet jobs.’
     • ‘Germany now faces weeks in limbo as the main parties indulge in horse-trading over all the possible permutations.’