Link Centre Dictionary

double cross

doub·lec·ross

uncommon
verb (1) noun (1)

verb

1.

noun

1.

an act of betrayal

  • “he gave us the old double cross”
  • “I could no longer tolerate his impudent double-crossing”
Synonyms

Origin

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.

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.