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double Dutch

noun
/dʌb.əl ˈdʌtʃ/

Etymology

From double (“twice, i.e. more than”) + Dutch. For sense 1: Dutch (which historically had a wider meaning) as a foreign language was not easily understood, so anything completely incomprehensible would be double Dutch, i.e. twice as hard as Dutch. Sense 2 expands on this meaning.

Definitions

  1. Incomprehensible language or speech.

    • “Tell him I don’t know what he’s talking about. It’s double Dutch to me.”

  2. A language game akin to pig Latin.

  3. A game of jump rope with two ropes and frequently two jumpers.

  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Sex using a condom and the contraceptive pill at the same time.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for double Dutch. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA