drive a hard bargain

Idioms

Be severe in negotiating a transaction, make an agreement to one's advantage. For example, It's more than I planned to pay, but you drive a hard bargain. This expression, first recorded in 1836, uses the verb drive in the sense of “forcefully carry through.”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But teapot refineries, clustered in China’s Shandong, a province sitting on the lower reaches of the Yellow River, are likely to drive a hard bargain.

From The Wall Street Journal

“You drive a hard bargain,” she said.

From Literature

By preventing creditors from attaching to Iraq’s oil shipments, the country was able to drive a hard bargain.

From Barron's

Since they haggle on behalf of health plans that collectively enroll hundreds of millions of Americans, these PBMs have considerable leverage, and should theoretically drive a hard bargain and win enormous discounts.

From Salon

"This is where we will drive a hard bargain, and problems could arise," cautions Mr Dhar.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023