sweetheart deal
noun
plural sweetheart deals
chiefly US
: an unusually advantageous arrangement or agreement
If they wanted to leave, they could have done so before the stadium expansion and received a sweetheart deal from someplace else.—
Nick Canepa
Nick Canepa
especially
: one that is obtained through personal or business connections or influence
His original 606,302 investment—most of it borrowed from a bank where he was once a director—netted him a fortune of $18.4 million, and accusations that he had benefited from a sweetheart deal. —David Hume Kennerly
David Hume Kennerly The company also used its clout to cut through the logjam of carrier requirements that had stifled innovation in the phone industry for years, essentially forcing AT&T into a sweetheart deal that put Apple in the driver's seat. —Brian X. Chen
Brian X. Chen Examples of sweetheart deal in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
And of course Giuliani’s associates Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas tried to use their connections to the White House to secure sweetheart deals in Ukraine’s energy sector, all while working to spread falsehoods about Biden and the 2016 election.
—Michael Carpenter, Foreign Affairs, 26 Nov. 2019
Boeing agreed to plead guilty two weeks ago to one charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States for its role in two fatal 737 Max crashes, in an agreement that many critics of Boeing – including crash victims’ families – slammed as a sweetheart deal.
—Ramishah Maruf, CNN, 24 July 2024
The Miami-Dade prosecutor had given Brown a sweetheart deal: 25 years in prison and immunity from prosecution for one of Miami’s worst mass shootings.
—Brittany Wallman, Miami Herald, 13 July 2024
Scottsdale house with gym, wine room, bar among priciest Arizona home sales Rents drop more than 7% in these Phoenix areas; Fountain Hills now the priciest Are private companies getting sweetheart deals on Arizona trust land?
—Christopher A. Combs, The Arizona Republic, 25 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for sweetheart deal 
Michael Carpenter, Foreign Affairs, 26 Nov. 2019
Boeing agreed to plead guilty two weeks ago to one charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States for its role in two fatal 737 Max crashes, in an agreement that many critics of Boeing – including crash victims’ families – slammed as a sweetheart deal.
—Ramishah Maruf, CNN, 24 July 2024
The Miami-Dade prosecutor had given Brown a sweetheart deal: 25 years in prison and immunity from prosecution for one of Miami’s worst mass shootings.
—Brittany Wallman, Miami Herald, 13 July 2024
Scottsdale house with gym, wine room, bar among priciest Arizona home sales Rents drop more than 7% in these Phoenix areas; Fountain Hills now the priciest Are private companies getting sweetheart deals on Arizona trust land?
—Christopher A. Combs, The Arizona Republic, 25 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for sweetheart deal
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sweetheart deal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Sweetheart deal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sweetheart%20deal. Accessed 20 Aug. 2024.
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