hammer out
phr. v..phr. v.. to reach an agreement or a solution after a lot of hard work and long discussions.
phr. v.. to arrive at a settlement or plan through intense, protracted negotiation; implies a process of forceful refinement and compromise.
The two sides finally managed to hammer out a deal.
Lawyers for both companies spent all night in the boardroom trying to hammer out the final details of the merger.
Diplomats worked tirelessly for weeks to hammer out a peace treaty that would satisfy the competing demands of all regional stakeholders.
usually followed by abstract nouns like 'deal', 'agreement', 'details', or 'compromise'.
the metaphor comes from blacksmithing, where metal is shaped by repeated hitting; this helps students understand why the phrase implies a 'hard' or 'forceful' negotiation process.
They hammered a deal out.They hammered out a deal.while technically separable, this phrasal verb is almost always used with the object following the particle 'out' when the object is a long noun phrase.