DEAL, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive dealt, pronoun delt.

1. To divide; to part; to separate; hence, to divide in portions; to distribute; often followed by out.

Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? Isaiah 1:8.

And Rome deals out her blessing and her gold.

2. To scatter; to throw about; as, to deal out feathered deaths.

3. To throw out in succession; to give one after another; as, to deal out blows.

4. To distribute the cards of a pack to the players.

DEAL, verb intransitive

1. To traffick; to trade; to negotiate.

They buy and sell, they deal and traffick.

2. To act between man and man; to intervene; to transact or negotiate between men.

He that deals between man and man, raiseth his own credit with both.

3. To behave well or ill; to act; to conduct one's self in relation to others.

Thou shalt not steal, nor deal falsely, not lie. Leviticus 19:11.

4. To distribute cards.

To deal by, to treat, either well or ill; as, to deal well by domestics.

Such an one deals not fairly by his own mind.

To deal in, to have to do with ; to be engaged in; to practice.

They deal in political matters; they deal in low humor.

2. To trade in; as, to deal in silks, or in cutlery.

To deal with, to treat in any manner; to use well or ill.

Now we will deal worse with thee. Genesis 19:9.

Return-and I will deal well with thee. Genesis 32:9.

3. To contend with; to treat with, by way of opposition, check or correction; as, he has turbulent passions to deal with.

4. To treat with by way of discipline, in ecclesiastical affairs; to admonish.

DEAL, n,

1. Literally, a division; a part or portion; hence, an indefinite quantity, degree or extent; as a deal of time and trouble; a deal of cold; a deal of space. Formerly it was limited by some, as some deal; but this is now obsolete or vulgar. In general, we now qualify the word with great, as a great deal of labor; a great deal of time and pains; a great deal of land. In the phrases, it is a great deal better or worse, the words, great deal serve as modifiers of the sense of better and worse. The true construction is, it is, by a great deal better; it is better by a great deal that is, by a great part or difference.

2. The division or distribution of cards; the art or practice of dealing cards.

The deal the shuffle, and the cut.

3. The division of a piece of timber made by sawing; a board or plank; a sense much more used in England than in the U. States.