plain dealer

English

Etymology

From plain + dealer, after plain dealing.

Noun

plain dealer (plural plain dealers)

  1. Someone who interacts or does business straightforwardly and honestly. [from 16th c.]
    • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, II.2:
      Ant. Why thou didst conclude hairy men plain dealers without wit.
      S. Dro. The plainer dealer, the sooner lost; yet he looseth it in a kind of iollitie.
    • 1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury, VI:
      She as often acted the Plain-Dealer with him, and fairly told him [...] that, in Truth, she had nothign but a very Small Spot to which she had any Hereditary Right [...].
    • 1840, Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop:
      ‘If plain speakers are scarce in this part of the world, I fancy that plain dealers are still scarcer.’
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