2. To do a distributing or retailing business, as
distinguished from that of a manufacturer or producer; to
traffic; to trade; to do business; as, he deals in flour.
They buy and sell, they deal and traffic. --South.
This is to drive to wholesale trade, when all other
petty merchants deal but for parcels. --Dr. H. More.
3. To act as an intermediary in business or any affairs; to
manage; to make arrangements; -- followed by between or
with.
Sometimes he that deals between man and man, raiseth
his own credit with both, by pretending greater
interest than he hath in either. --Bacon.
4. To conduct one's self; to behave or act in any affair or
towards any one; to treat.
If he will deal clearly and impartially, . . . he
will acknowledge all this to be true. --Tillotson.
5. To contend (with); to treat (with), by way of opposition,
check, or correction; as, he has turbulent passions to
deal with.
{To deal by}, to treat, either well or ill; as, to deal well
by servants. ``Such an one deals not fairly by his own
mind.'' --Locke.
{To deal in}.
(a) To have to do with; to be engaged in; to practice; as,
they deal in political matters.
(b) To buy and sell; to furnish, as a retailer or
wholesaler; as, they deal in fish.
{To deal with}.
(a) To treat in any manner; to use, whether well or ill;
to have to do with; specifically, to trade with.
``Dealing with witches.'' --Shak.
(b) To reprove solemnly; to expostulate with.
The deacons of his church, who, to use their own
phrase, ``dealt with him'' on the sin of
rejecting the aid which Providence so manifestly
held out. --Hawthorne.
Return . . . and I will deal well with thee.
--Gen. xxxii.
9.
Three tenth deals [parts of an ephah] of flour.
--Num. xv. 9.
As an object of science it [the Celtic genius] may
count for a good deal . . . as a spiritual power.
--M. Arnold.
She was resolved to be a good deal more circumspect.
--W. Black.
Note: It was formerly limited by some, every, never a, a
thousand, etc.; as, some deal; but these are now
obsolete or vulgar. In general, we now qualify the word
with great or good, and often use it adverbially, by
being understood; as, a great deal of time and pains; a
great (or good) deal better or worse; that is, better
by a great deal, or by a great part or difference.
2. The process of dealing cards to the players; also, the
portion disturbed.
The deal, the shuffle, and the cut. --Swift.
3. Distribution; apportionment. [Colloq.]
4. An arrangement to attain a desired result by a combination
of interested parties; -- applied to stock speculations
and political bargains. [Slang]
5. [Prob. from D. deel a plank, threshing floor. See
{Thill}.] The division of a piece of timber made by
sawing; a board or plank; particularly, a board or plank
of fir or pine above seven inches in width, and exceeding
six feet in length. If narrower than this, it is called a
batten; if shorter, a deal end.
Note: Whole deal is a general term for planking one and one
half inches thick.
6. Wood of the pine or fir; as, a floor of deal.
{Deal tree}, a fir tree. --Dr. Prior.
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? --Is.
lviii. 7.
And Rome deals out her blessings and her gold.
--Tickell.
The nightly mallet deals resounding blows. --Gay.
Hissing through the skies, the feathery deaths were
dealt. --Dryden.
2. Specifically: To distribute, as cards, to the players at
the commencement of a game; as, to deal the cards; to deal
one a jack.