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