Cut a deal

Cut a deal

Today’s phrase is “cut a deal.” This phrase means to come to an agreement, or to make an agreement. You heard this one earlier when we were talking about the movie Darkest Hour. Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Nazi Germany was sweeping through Europe and threatening the UK’s survival. Many people wanted Churchill to cut a deal with the Nazi’s; they wanted him to stop fighting and come to an agreement with Hitler. Churchill famously refused to cut a deal and kept fighting. His decision not to cut a deal was eventually vindicated, or proved right, in the eyes of history.

You generally would use “cut a deal” when an agreement would solve a problem. In a divorce, for example, the separating husband and wife might be arguing about who gets what possessions. One party might offer to cut a deal or make a trade—one person gets the house, while the other gets everything else, for example.

Imagine a soccer team: one team has a lot of good forwards, while another team has three good goalkeepers, but no good forwards. The two teams might cut a deal: the first can trade a couple of forwards in exchange for one goalie.

Let me tell you a quick personal story. When I bought my current apartment, I noticed that the outside of the building might need a lot of expensive repair work in the near future. As you can imagine, I wasn’t too excited about paying for these repairs right away. On the other hand, the seller didn’t want to pay for repairs if they weren’t really necessary. Eventually, I offered to cut a deal: the seller would deposit money in a special account that would pay for the repairs, but only if they were truly necessary. If it turned out not to be necessary, the seller could keep the money. The seller agreed, so we cut a deal that made us both happy.

So, remember, you can use “cut a deal” when you come to a new agreement that solves a problem.

Thanks for listening to Plain English today. Just to leave you with a couple of my movie recommendations: among all the films nominated for an Oscar this year, my recommendations are Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Lady Bird, and Coco.

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