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1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 501. I piped a slavey (servant) come out of a chat (house), so when she had got a little way up the double (turning) I pratted (went) in the house.
4. (printers').—Repetition of a word or sentence.
[Double, adj. and adv., is also used as an intensitive in many obscene or offensive connotations: e.g., double-arsed = large in the posteriors; double-duggs (and double-dugged or diddied) = heavy breasted; double-guts (and double-gutted) = excessively corpulent; double-cunted = stretched beyond service; double-hocked = abnormally thick ankled; double-shung = extravagantly large in the genitals; double-mouthed = mouth-almighty (q.v.); and so forth.]
To put the double on, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To circumvent.
To tip or give the double, verb. phr. (common).—To run or slip away openly or unperceived; to double as a hare; formerly to escape one's creditors. Also to tip one the Dublin packet. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 174, s.v.
1860. The Druid, 'Post and Paddock.' Alas! my innocent rural police, Your fondest hopes were a bubble; Your attempts to prevent a breach of the peace, Your race o'er the Derbyshire stubble; You must freely own that you felt like geese, When Sam Rogers gave you the double.
1870. Daily News, 26 May. 'The Metropolitan Police.' The policeman must do his best to 'keep square' with the sergeant who looks after him and his beats, who can be down upon him at any moment and double upon him three or four times a-night.
1884. Hawley Smart, Post to Finish, ch. i. Old Gregson would never put the double upon us. No, it's right enough, you may depend upon it.
Double-back, verb. phr.—(colloquial).—To
go back upon one-*self;
an action; an opinion.
Double-barrel, subs. (popular).—A
field or opera glass.
1890. H. D. Traill, Saturday Songs, p. 61. Intently as the masher plies O'er all the stage his double-barrel That Eightyer mute had fixed his eyes Upon his honoured guest's apparel.
Double-barrelled, adj. (venery).—Said
of a harlot working both
before and behind.
Double-bottomed, adj. (colloquial).—Insincere;
saying one
thing and meaning another.
Double-breasted feet, subs. phr.
(common).—Club feet. Also
Double Breasters.
Double-cross or Double-double,
subs. (sporting).—Winning or
doing one's best to win after
engaging to lose or 'mike'; (q.v.).
1887. Referee, 21 Aug., 1, 3. When the pair raced before, Teemer declared, and Hanlan did not deny, that a double cross was brought off. Teemer promised to sell the match, and finished by selling those who calculated on his losing.
Double-distilled, adj. (colloquial).—Superlative:
e.g., 'a
double-distilled whopper' = a
tremendous lie.
Double-dutch, adj. (colloquial).—Unintelligible
speech; jargon;
gibberish. 'It was all Double-dutch
to me' = I didn't understand
a word of it.
Double-event, subs. (sporting).—1.
Backing a horse for two
races.
1883. Grenville Murray, People I Have Met, p. 155. His lordship, who had won largely on a double event.
2. (venery).—Gonorrhœa and syphillis at once. Said also of simultaneous defloration and impregnation.
