double take

1. 1.

   a delayed reaction indicating surprise

   Broaderreaction

Questions about double take

What does double take mean?

double take means "a delayed reaction indicating surprise".

Is double take a common word?

double take is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.