Loading page
say it: DUHB-uhl
double is an adjective, verb, noun and adverb meaning "having more than one decidedly dissimilar aspects or qualities". It carries 21 recorded senses.
used of flowers having more than the usual number of petals in crowded or overlapping arrangements
“double chrysanthemums have many rows of petals and are usually spherical or hemispherical”
botany
bend over or curl up, usually with laughter or pain
“He doubled and vomited violently”
do double duty; serve two purposes or have two functions
“She doubles as his wife and secretary”
bridge: make a demand for (a card or suit)
make or do or perform again
“He could never replicate his brilliant performance of the magic trick”
a base hit on which the batter stops safely at second base
“he hit a double to deep centerfield”
a stand-in for movie stars to perform dangerous stunts
“his first job in Hollywood was as a double for Clark Gable”
someone who closely resembles a famous person (especially an actor)
“he could be Gingrich's double”
“she's the very image of her mother”
downward and forward
“he was bent double with pain”
two together
“some people sleep better double”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for double come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.