put facts on the ground

Verb

put facts on the ground (third-person singular simple present puts facts on the ground, present participle putting facts on the ground, simple past and past participle put facts on the ground)

1. (especially, idiomatic) To quietly or incrementally change the de facto situation in one's favor in order to win a legal dispute.
   • And while people are dithering, the cloning research in the private biotech industries will put facts on the ground that will be difficult to challenge. Only a moratorium can test the good faith of those who say they want regulation.2002 July, Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry, Washington, D.C.: President's Council on Bioethics, →ISBN, page 278
   • Its commanding influence in the signature and future ratification of the CFA, and its attempt to put facts on the ground through hydraulic structures, has brought the relationship between Ethiopia and Egypt to its lowest level since the establishment of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI).2013 September 11, Flavia Rocha Loures, Alistair Rieu-Clarke, The UN Watercourses Convention in Force: Strengthening International Law for Transboundary Water Management, Oxford: Routledge, →ISBN...