Learn English – What does “There’s less to the deal than meets the eye,” mean

idiomsmeaningproverbs

There was the following passage in New Yorker’s (November 18) article that came under the title, ”Is China really going green?”:

“But here was President Xi Jinping pledging that, by 2030, his
country’s carbon emissions would max out, and energy from renewable
sources would meet twenty per cent of its total energy needs.

In a sense, there’s less to the deal than meets the eye. It’s
non-binding, and, as the White House statementabout it makes clear,
the dates aren’t necessarily firm. –Clearly, there’s wiggle room on
both sides.”

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/can-china-really-go-green?

I also found the same phrase,

“There’s less than meets the eye in the latest “blockbuster”
realignment of leading Canadian media assets unveiled Friday”

in;

http://www.thestar.com/business/2010/09/10/olive_theres_less_than_meets_the_eye_in_the_bellctv_deal.html

I think I can guess what “There’s less to the deal than meets the eye” means from its context, but not very sure. How could it be replaced in straighter words? Is this a common expression or popular saying?

Best Answer

The phrase "There's less to the deal than meets the eye" is a reversal of the popular idiom "There's more (to something) than meets the eye."

Basically, "There's less to the deal than meets the eye" is trying to say:

The deal appears better at first glance of the readily available facts than it does if you actually read all the details.

A different source of the expression could be a reference to the book Less than Meets the Eye by Barbara Hinckley. The book is about how, to a casual observer, the US Congress regularly disagrees with the President, but upon further review of the facts, actually agrees with the President on most foreign policy matters. However, Hinckley's title likely comes from the "More than meets the eye" idiom above.

A comparable idiom might be "less than perfect". This idiom is often used sarcastically to express and highlight the imperfections of something, even though, literally, the phrase expresses something closer to "almost perfect".

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