double-tongued [duhb-uh l-tuhngd] ExamplesWord Origin adjective
- deceitful; hypocritical.
Origin of double-tongued 1350–1400; Middle English dowble tungid double-tongue [duhb-uh l-tuhng] verb (used without object), dou·ble-tongued, dou·ble-tongu·ing. Music.
- to interrupt the wind flow by moving the tongue as if pronouncing t and k alternately, especially in playing rapid passages or staccato notes on a brass instrument.
Compare triple-tongue. Examples from the Web for double-tongued Historical Examples of double-tongued
This double-tongued talker is not unfrequently met with in public meetings.
John Bate
Margaret said she thought she was weeping because they were so double-tongued with her.
Charles Reade
Who art thou, false, double-tongued betrayer, That wouldst frighten and perplex me?
The Life of Friedrich Schiller
Thomas Carlyle
Silly credulity may take this as a proof how much evil a double-tongued man may often contrive.
Phaedrus
It was a contest in which Leicester revelled—simplicity and single-mindedness against the multifarious and double-tongued.
Gilbert Parker
British Dictionary definitions for double-tongued double-tongued adjective
- deceitful or hypocritical in speech
double-tongue verb -tongues, -tonguing or -tongued
- music to play (fast staccato passages) on a wind instrument by rapid obstruction and uncovering of the air passage through the lips with the tongueCompare single-tongue, triple-tongue
Derived Formsdouble tonguing, noun