Meanings
present singular third person strikes twice · participle present striking twice · participle past struck twice · past struck twice
- but figuratively meaning other thingsTo impact the same location, person, etc. again.
"Has fortune struck twice in one week? I send you out after cheese and you bring home an entire cow?”
2004, Lynn Abbey, Thieves' World: Enemies of Fortune, page 2764 more examples
Finger and Kane presented the editor with the Bat-Man, who made his debut in Detective Comics #27, dated May 1939, and . . . lightning struck twice. Another hit! Another Superman? Well, no. Oh, there were, and are, similarities: the double identity, the cape and tights, the devotion to crime-fighting.
2008 February 9, Dennis O'Neil, Leah Wilson, Batman Unauthorized: Vigilantes, Jokers, and Heroes in Gotham City, BenBella Books, →ISBN, page 3And to Alistair and Jessica, from Seven Years to Sin, who inspired me to write Gideon and Eva's story. I'm so glad the inspiration struck twice!
2012, Sylvia Day, Bared to You, dedicationLenny threw himself into a shell hole hoping that lightning wouldn't strike twice. The bombs hit horses, caisson , and even the chow line by the rolling kitchen that Len would have been standing in if he hadn't been writing a letter to Maggie instead. It was as if it were raining flesh and entrails.
2014 October 7, James G. Bilder, Artillery Scout: The Story of a Forward Observer with the U.S. Field Artillery in World War I, Casemate, →ISBNHe wished he could have a clear answer. With Ciara he had known immediately that she was the one for him. Had he expected lightning to strike twice in his life? Chapter Ten Charlie greeted Lesley with an exuberant bark and.
2022 October 19, Merrillee Whren, Puppy Love and Christmas Cookies, Merrillee Whren, →ISBN
Origin
Alluding to the proverb lightning never strikes twice in the same place.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
strike twice. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/strike%20twice
“strike twice.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/strike%20twice. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “strike twice,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/strike%20twice.
Source: strike twice on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.