hammer out

English

Verb

hammer out (third-person singular simple present hammers out, present participle hammering out, simple past and past participle hammered out)

1. (transitive) To come to (a difficult agreement or settlement) after much arguing and conflict.

   Two years after the flood, my lawyer managed to hammer out a settlement with my insurance company over the damages.

   • 2012 December 21, David M. Halbfinger, Charles V. Bagli, Sarah Maslin Nir, “On Ravaged Coastline, It’s Rebuild Deliberately vs. Rebuild Now”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     In New York City, property owners seeking to rebound from the storm will have to feel their way through a wilderness of new flood maps, revamped building codes and land-use ordinances, along with a host of other measures addressing the specific needs of storm-battered communities — all of which have yet to be hammered out and adopted.

   • 2021 November 2, Jim Tankersley, Katie Rogers, Lisa Friedman, “With Methane and Forest Deals, Climate Summit Offers Hope After Gloomy Start”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Over the next week and a half, diplomats will have to hammer out rules around international carbon markets and figure out how to deliver on a still-unmet promise from more than a decade ago to deliver $100 billion annually by 2020 to help poor countries pivot away from fossil fuels and prepare for the impact of climate change.

   • 2022 August 10, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Striking a fair balance”, in RAIL, number 963, page 3:

     He really doesn't know when to shut up and leave it to those at the heart of the negotiations, who fully understand and appreciate all the nuances, to try and hammer out a deal.

References

• “hammer out”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.