negotiate

Definition

To confer with others in order to come to terms or reach an agreement.

Etymology

c. 1598; borrowed from Latin negōtiātus, perfect active participle of negōtior (“to do business, trade”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from negotium (“business”) + -or, from nec (“not”) + otium (“leisure, ease, inactivity”).

Example Sentences

• "1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., to the eight fellow clergymen who opposed the civil rights action, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Why We Can't Wait "You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.""
• "We negotiated the contract to everyone's satisfaction."
• "The client and server computers must first negotiate a network protocol to be used."

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