drive a hard bargain

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Negotiate firmly to get the best possible deal

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

đàm phán mạnh mẽ để có được thỏa thuận tốt nhất

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: operate a vehicle aggressively
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

She drove a hard bargain and got a discount on the house

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “drive a hard bargain” mean?

Negotiate firmly to get the best possible deal Literally: operate a vehicle aggressively

Is “drive a hard bargain” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.