wheeler-dealer

English

Etymology

From the original conext of betting and casino, one chancing his luck and skill and perhaps his ability to cheat.[1]

Noun

wheeler-dealer (plural wheeler-dealers)

  1. (informal) A shrewd political or commercial schemer, especially one who is unscrupulous; a hustler; a shady operator.
    • 1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 257:
      The Game Club at least has kept me in trim. I won't look bad laid out on the slab. Music now would help. Going over the top into the big circus on the other side. Shake hands in heaven. With the biggest wheeler dealer of them all.
    • 1990 November 26, Ed Magnuson; Hays Gorey, “You Sold Your Office”, in Time:
      Seated at separate tables to underscore their differing levels of involvement with indicted savings and loan wheeler-dealer Charles Keating, the five were fighting to regain reputations earned in a lifetime of public service.

Translations

References
  1. Linda Flavell (2011) Dictionary of Idioms and their Origins, London
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