English

Noun

plain dealer ‎(plural plain dealers)

1. Someone who interacts or does business straightforwardly and honestly. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, II.2:

     Ant. Why thou didst conclude hairy men plain dealers without wit.

     S. Dro. The plainer dealer, the sooner lost; yet he looseth it in a kind of iollitie.

   • 1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury, VI:

     She as often acted the Plain-Dealer with him, and fairly told him [...] that, in Truth, she had nothign but a very Small Spot to which she had any Hereditary Right [...].

   • 1840, Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop:

     ‘If plain speakers are scarce in this part of the world, I fancy that plain dealers are still scarcer.’