View synonyms for

double cross

noun

a betrayal or swindle of a colleague.
an attempt to win a contest that one has agreed beforehand to lose.
Genetics.��a cross in which both parents are first-generation hybrids from single crosses, thus involving four inbred lines.

double-cross

[duhb-uhl-kraws, -kros]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

verb (used with object)

Informal.

to prove treacherous to; betray or swindle, as by a double cross.

double-cross

verb

(tr) to cheat or betray

noun

the act or an instance of double-crossing; betrayal

double cross

noun

a technique for producing hybrid stock, esp seed for cereal crops, by crossing the hybrids between two different pairs of inbred lines

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Other Word Forms

double-crosser noun
ˈ��ǳܲ��-ˈ��ǲ�� noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of double cross¹

First recorded in 1825–35

Origin of double cross²

First recorded in 1900–05

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Idioms and Phrases

A deliberate betrayal; violation of a promise or obligation, as in They had planned a double cross, intending to keep all of the money for themselves. This usage broadens the term's earlier sense in sports gambling, where it alluded to the duplicity of a contestant who breaks his word after illicitly promising to lose. Both usages gave rise to the verb double-cross. [Late 1800s]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

"Giving someone £37m of drugs means there is a trust that is not likely to be broken because they know what the outcome would be they double crossed them," he added.

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Then a double cross happens, and Rachel learns what some viewers might have suspected — that one of her colleagues is in cahoots with Keya!

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It’s all dangerous deals and double crosses, yet it whiffs on an opportunity for an actually interesting double cross that might have made us sit up and pay attention.

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"You can choose to lie to a character, you can help them, you can gain their trust, you can double cross folks," said Ann Morrow Johnson, executive producer and creative director for Walt Disney Imagineering.

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Still, the Jefferson dream lives on, in the form of flags — a gold pan and two Xs, a heavy-handed symbol of the double cross — that, during the pandemic, have adorned face masks.

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double-crop Double-Crostic

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