Word.ws English Dictionary

double-cross

double-cross verb: to betray or go back on; to deceive someone after having gained their trust and led them to believe that they were being aided.

Verb

double-cross (third-person singular simple present double-crosses, present participle double-crossing, simple past and past participle double-crossed)

  1. (transitive) To betray or go back on; to deceive someone after having gained their trust and led them to believe that they were being aided.
    • If you double-cross us, we'll track you down and kill you.
    • I've been double crossed / By a double dealin', double winnin' / Looks like I'm the one who lost.1979, First Choice, “Double Cross”, in Hold Your Horses
  2. (transitive) Of breeding, to cross twice in hybridization, as (A × B) × (C × D); for example, in commercial hybrid seed corn, A through D are classically inbreds, and their grandoffspring is the seed for sale.

Noun

double-cross (plural double-crosses)

  1. An act or instance of deliberate betrayal or deceit, especially in which one party violates a prior agreement or trust with a collaborator.
    • The only problem is that Cosmo accidentally double-crosses the double-cross: By sheer luck he succeeds at the murder and gets away, which leaves the mob in the uncomfortable position of having to do the dirty work of rubbing him out themselves.1985, Raymond Carney, The Films of John Cassavetes, Pragmatism, Modernism, and the Movies, page 185
  2. Of a breeding, the hybrid product of double-crossing.

double-cross meaning in Tamil and Malayalam

double-cross in Tamil

இருபுறமும் காட்டிக் கொடு, இருபுறமும் காட்டிக் கொடுத்தல், காட்டிக் கொடு

double-cross in Malayalam

cheat, betray, defraud
കുതികാൽവെട്ടുക, ചതിക്കുക, വിശ്വാസവഞ്ചന ചെയ്ക, വഞ്ചന നടത്തുക, ചുറ്റിക്കുക, വഞ്ചിക്കുക

Synonyms of double-cross

14 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of double-cross

Forms of double-cross

Verb
third-person singular presentdouble-crosses
present participledouble-crossing
past participledouble-crossed
pastdouble-crossed
Noun
pluraldouble-crosses

Origin of double-cross

First recorded in 1834 from thieves' slang cross (or on the cross) to refer to something dishonest, a play on straight or square: a crook going back on his partners would therefore be crossing the crossers, or double-crossing.

Words formed from double-cross

Questions about double-cross

What does double-cross mean?
Double-cross means to betray or go back on; to deceive someone after having gained their trust and led them to believe that they were being aided.
What is double-cross in Tamil?
Double-cross in Tamil is இருபுறமும் காட்டிக் கொடு, இருபுறமும் காட்டிக் கொடுத்தல், காட்டிக் கொடு. See Double-cross meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is double-cross?
Double-cross can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of double-cross?
The past tense of double-cross is double-crossed.

Words near double-cross in the dictionary

  1. double-count
  2. double-counts
  3. double-course
  4. double-crested cormorant
  5. double-crested cormorants
  6. double-cross
  7. double-crossed
  8. double-crosser
  9. double-crossers
  10. double-crosses
  11. double-crossing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: double-cross (page history and authors); double-cross (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); double-cross (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “double-cross.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/double-cross. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.