out-Byzantine

English

Etymology

out- +‎ Byzantine

Verb

out-Byzantine (third-person singular simple present out-Byzantines, present participle out-Byzantining, simple past and past participle out-Byzantined)

1. (transitive) To appear to be a more subtle negotiator than; to outsmart.
   • 2011, Theodore Vestal, The Lion of Judah in the New World, page 127:

     Although Ambassador Korry had admonished the president that “trying to out-Byzantine” the emperor “would be futile and counterproductive” and that Kennedy therefore should “spell out details of the U.S. program and justification from the start,” Washington tried to outsmart HIM […]