Dicker

//ˈdɪkə(ɹ)// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A unit of measure, consisting of 10 of some object, particularly hides and skins. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "1599, attributed to Thomas Heywood, Edward IV, Part One, Act III, Scene 1, https://books.google.ca/books?id=d_MuAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Hobs [the Tanner of Tamsworth]. […] My taking is more than my spending, for here's store left. I have spent but a groat; a penny for my two jades, a penny to the poor, a penny pot of ale, and a penny cake for my man and me, a dicker of cowhides cost me."

  2. 2
    A chaffering, barter, or exchange, of small wares. US, countable, uncountable

    "to make a dicker"

Verb
  1. 1
    To bargain, haggle or negotiate over a sale. intransitive

    "At Bouira the detachment detrained, and the balance of the journey was made in the saddle. As Tarzan was dickering at Bouira for a mount he caught a brief glimpse of a man in European clothes eying him from the doorway of a native coffeehouse, […]"

  2. 2
    negotiate the terms of an exchange wordnet
  3. 3
    To barter. intransitive

    "Then, the white men who penetrated to those semi-wilds were always ready to "dicker" and to "swap," and to "trade" rifles, and watches, and whatever else they might happen to possess, almost to their wives and children."

  4. 4
    To fiddle. intransitive

    "They sat in a booth near the door and drank the first cold ones of the evening while watching three impassioned pinballers dickering with flashing, promising, tilting machines."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English diker (“measure of ten”), from Late Latin dacra (“a dicker”), from Latin decuria (“a ten of something”), from decem (“ten”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English diker (“measure of ten”), from Late Latin dacra (“a dicker”), from Latin decuria (“a ten of something”), from decem (“ten”).

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