meet halfway

present singular third person meets halfway · participle present meeting halfway · participle past met halfway · past met halfway

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo compromise; to achieve a mutual accommodation.

   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.

   2005, Paul Laurence Dunbar et al., The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar, →ISBN, page xxii

   1 more example

   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.

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

2. idiomatictransitiveTo compromise with or to accommodate.

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

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

   2 more examples

   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.

   1919, B. M. Bower, chapter 11, in The Thunder Bird

   "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."

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

3. idiomaticraretransitiveTo settle (contrary opinions, etc.) by making concessions.

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

   1947 September 1, “Italy: A Clock for Fiumicino”, in Time