double-barreled
Americanadjective
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having two barrels mounted side by side, as a shotgun.
-
serving a double purpose or having two parts or aspects.
a double-barreled attack on corruption.
Etymology
Origin of double-barreled
First recorded in 1700–10
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.
But Garry—as enacted by Mr. Warren-Smith, whose double-barreled surname wouldn’t suit the lowdown lunacy Garry gets up to—is a warmly ingratiating performer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
“The Bride!” is a wild, willfully over-the-top double-barreled reinvigoration of 1935’s “Bride of Frankenstein” that is always doing something a little extra in telling its unpredictable story of identity and the reclamation of the self.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2026
The inflection point for the fashion and beauty industry came with the double-barreled ascent of Jennifer Lopez, who conquered both the pop charts and the big screen in the latter part of the ’90s.
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2025
Wielding a double-barreled shotgun in his review for The New York Times, the critic Stephen Holden dismissed Sparks’s book as “treacly” and called the film “a high-toned cinematic greeting card.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 8, 2024
Every afternoon he could be seen returning on horseback, with his hunting dogs and his double-barreled shotgun and a string of rabbits hanging from his saddle.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
