[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 oneself; 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 syphilis at once. Said also of simultaneous
defloration and impregnation.