hammer out

English

Verb

hammer out (third-person singular simple present hammers out, present participle hammering out, simple past and past participle hammered out)

  1. (transitive) To come to (a difficult agreement or settlement) after much arguing and conflict.
    Two years after the flood, my lawyer managed to hammer out a settlement with my insurance company over the damages.
    • 2012 December 21, David M. Halbfinger, Charles V. Bagli and Sarah Maslin Nir, “On Ravaged Coastline, It’s Rebuild Deliberately vs. Rebuild Now”, in New York Times‎:
      In New York City, property owners seeking to rebound from the storm will have to feel their way through a wilderness of new flood maps, revamped building codes and land-use ordinances, along with a host of other measures addressing the specific needs of storm-battered communities — all of which have yet to be hammered out and adopted.
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