square deal

A fair, honest transaction, deal, or arrangement. The president said he will pull out of trade deal talks until he feels sure we are getting a square deal. We aren't looking to be paid or treated better than our peers—we just want a square deal. $300 for that crappy old computer? That doesn't sound like a square deal to me, dude.

a square deal

a fair bargain or treatment.

Square here has the sense of ‘honest’, which as an adjective was associated originally with honourable play at cards. See also on the square (at square).

square deal, a

A fair and honest arrangement. Although square has been used to mean “equitable” since the fourteenth century, this expression became well known only in the early twentieth century, when Theodore Roosevelt made it the platform of his presidential campaign. “If elected, I shall see to it that every man has a square deal, no less and no more,” he said (Nov. 4, 1904).