double agent
Americannoun
-
a person who spies on a country while pretending to spy for it.
-
a spy in the service of two rival countries, companies, etc.
noun
Etymology
Origin of double agent
First recorded in 1930–35
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In 2018, the UK said Russian double agent Sergei Skripal was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in the British cathedral city of Salisbury.
From Barron's • Mar. 30, 2026
One police officer, Evelyn Tardiff, has long served as a double agent within the mobster’s circle, and Armand has grown unsure of her loyalties, fearing that “he no longer knew whose side she was on.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025
Framed as a confession by the child of a Frenchman and a Vietnamese woman, the narrator is a double agent with an unforgettable voice recalling Graham Greene and Vladimir Nabokov.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2025
Days later, the pair met for a third time where the double agent handed over a six-page typewritten account of covert work for the Soviet Union and how he had come to be recruited.
From BBC • Jan. 14, 2025
In other words, Arnold wanted to be a double agent for the British.
From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
