Word.ws English Dictionary

double-down

double-down is the alternative form of double down.

Meaning of double down

Verb

double down (third-person singular simple present doubles down or (nonstandard) double downs, present participle doubling down or (nonstandard) double downing, simple past and past participle doubled down or (nonstandard) double downed)

  1. (intransitive) To double one's wager, particularly, the name of a specific doubling bet allowed in blackjack.
    • He'd bet three thousand and double down to six thousand, all of it hanging on the turn of the next card.1999, Frederick Barthelme, Steven Barthelme, Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss, →ISBN, page 66
  2. (broadly, figuratively, intransitive) To significantly increase a risk, investment, or other commitment; to respond to a challenge (e.g. to an opinion) by reinforcing or extending one's position rather than moderating it.
    • Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama all want to get out of Iraq. They all want to double down in Afghanistan.2007 April 12, Peter Beinart, “The Kosovo Conundrum”, in Time

Forms of double-down

third-person singular presentdoubles-down
present participledoubling-down
past participledoubled-down
pastdoubled-down

Questions about double-down

What is double-down the alternative form of?
Double-down is the alternative form of double down.

Words near double-down in the dictionary

  1. double-double-crosses
  2. double-double-crossing
  3. double-double-double
  4. double-double-doubles
  5. double-doubles
  6. double-down
  7. double-duty
  8. double-dyed
  9. double-eagle
  10. double-eagles
  11. double-edged

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: double-down (page history and authors); double down (page history and authors). 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-down.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/double-down. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.