Meanings
- idiomaticnot comparableSaying one thing to one person and something different to another; double talking; deceitful in speech.
Thou art but a double-tongu'd Chriſtian, I doubt: […]
1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton, […], J[ohn] Graves […], A[nne] Dodd, […], and T[homas] Warner, […], →OCLC, page 2791 more example
“Thou wry-necked, trash-mongering, swaggering, double-tongued, huff-snuff!”
1970, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 123Synonyms: twi-tongued, two-tongued
- participlepastsimple past and past participle of double-tongue
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveSaying one thing to one person and something different to another; double talking; deceitful in speech.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivemarked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishdoubultongud
- Englishdouble-tongued
From Middle English doubultongud, dowbyl townged, dubble tungyd, equivalent to double + tongued.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
German doppelzüngig, zweigezüngt
- doppelzüngigdeceitful in speech
- zweigezüngtdeceitful in speech
Cite this entry
double-tongued. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/double-tongued
“double-tongued.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/double-tongued. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “double-tongued,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/double-tongued.
Source: double-tongued on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.