meet halfway

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

meet halfway (third-person singular simple present meets halfway, present participle meeting halfway, simple past and past participle met halfway)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic, of two parties) To compromise; to achieve a mutual accommodation.
   • 2005, Paul Laurence Dunbar et al., The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar‎, →ISBN, page xxii:

     Nelse's ability to act humanely toward those who have previously wronged him suggests that reconciliation between whites and blacks is possible if both are willing to meet halfway.

   • 2010, Robert Swartwood, Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words Or Fewer, →ISBN, page 24:

     In the essay, I proposed that the very best storytelling was the kind where the writer and reader meet halfway, the writer only painting fifty percent of the picture and forcing the reader to fill in the rest.

2. (transitive, idiomatic) To compromise with or to accommodate.
   • 1919, B. M. Bower, chapter 11, in The Thunder Bird:

     So please, dear, won't you let us come up and talk nicely together? . . . [W]e can get you out of this scrape if you will meet us halfway and be a nice sensible boy.

   • 1922, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 11, in Man Size:

     [T]imes are changin', West. Law's comin' into the country an' we old-timers oughta meet it halfway with the glad hand.

   • 1959 August 3, “Geneva: The Eighth Week”, in Time:

     "Mr. Gromyko," said Herter himself early in the week, "appears to mistake the moves we have made to meet him halfway as signs of weakness."

3. (rare, transitive, idiomatic) To settle (contrary opinions, etc.) by making concessions.
   • 1947 September 1, “Italy: A Clock for Fiumicino”, in Time:

     Marcovaldi declared: "I suggest that the differences be met halfway."

• split the difference

• “meet halfway”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.