DEAL. A British term commonly used to designate the soft woods derived from the Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris) which is called yellow or red deal, and the spruce fir (Abies excelsa) which is called white deal. The former is by far the better timber. Deal is freely imported into the British Isles from Scandinavia and Russia, and so widely used for building and other purposes that the world is threatened with a soft-wood famine.