wheeler-ˈdealer colloq. (orig. and chiefly U.S.).
[f. wheel and deal v.: cf. -er1.]
A schemer, esp. in business or politics; one who wheels and deals (see quot. 1960).
| 1960 Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 574/2 Wheeler-dealer..one who wheels and deals; an adroit, quick-witted, scheming person; a person with many business or social interests. 1963 Economist 24 Aug. 666/1 Two Dallas oil millionaires,..described as ‘a pair of old-line Texas wheeler-dealers’. 1968 G. Wyckoff Image Candidates iii. 20 Ted had been known as the Wheeler-Dealer because he always had important phone calls to make from his hotel room when we arrived on location. 1973 Guardian 23 Mar. 15/3 Old-style American corruption of the wheeler-dealer variety. 1978 L. Heren Growing up on The Times ix. 301 He [sc. Lyndon Johnson] was a shop-soiled old politico, a wheeler dealer, and past master of consensus politics. |
Hence wheeler-ˈdealing, the activity of a wheeler-dealer; = wheeling and dealing vbl. n. s.v. wheel and deal v.
| 1968 N.Y. Times 1 Feb. 42 Wondering what wheeler-dealing was going on over telephone lines among the various managements. 1976 Listener 5 Feb. 135/3 To ensure that..councils (or the community) got the upper hand in any wheeler-dealing between councils and developers. 1979 Daily Tel. 27 Apr. 36/6 Mr Prior also stressed that voting liberal could mean another ‘hung’ Parliament which would mean more ‘wheeler dealing’ at Westminster. 1984 Listener 22 Mar. 4/1 It is here in the intricate wheeler-dealing of the Common Market, the Atlantic alliance and international trade and finance that the ‘diplomatic’ reputations of the future will be made. |