plea-bargain

plea-bargain is the alternative form of plea bargain.

Meaning of plea bargain

plea bargain (plural plea bargains)

(US) An agreement in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge instead of not guilty to a greater one

Synonyms:

plea agreement, plea deal

plea-bargain (third-person singular simple present plea-bargains, present participle plea-bargaining, simple past and past participle plea-bargained)

(US) To make an agreement in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge instead of not guilty to a greater one.
- […] former District Attorney, Butters said "[…] I think the fact that so many plead guilty proves that these cases should have been prosecuted." One of those who plea-bargained disagrees. Ed Mede last week pleaded guilty to one count of sex with a minor under 16. "This does not prove my gilt...1979 April 28, Tom Reeves, “Revere Sex Cases Resolved”, in Gay Community News, page 1

Noun
plural	plea-bargains
alternative form	plea bargain
alternative form	pleabargain
Verb
third-person singular present	plea-bargains
present participle	plea-bargaining
past participle	plea-bargained
past	plea-bargained

What does plea-bargain mean?: Plea-bargain means to make an agreement in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge instead of not guilty to a greater one.
What is plea-bargain the alternative form of?: Plea-bargain is the alternative form of plea bargain.
What part of speech is plea-bargain?: Plea-bargain is a verb.
What is the past tense of plea-bargain?: The past tense of plea-bargain is plea-bargained.

Adapted from Wiktionary: plea-bargain (page history and authors); plea bargain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “plea-bargain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plea-bargain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.