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• double Dutch
  double Dutch

  noun

  unintelligible or garbled speech or language.
• Double Dutch
  Double Dutch

  noun

  a form of the game of jump rope in which two persons, holding the respective ends of two long jump ropes, swing them in a synchronized fashion, usually directed inward so the ropes are going in opposite directions, for one or two others to jump over.

double Dutch

¹ American  

noun

Slang.

1. unintelligible or garbled speech or language.

   She could have been talking double Dutch for all we understood of it.

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Double Dutch ² American  

noun

(sometimes lowercase)

1. a form of the game of jump rope in which two persons, holding the respective ends of two long jump ropes, swing them in a synchronized fashion, usually directed inward so the ropes are going in opposite directions, for one or two others to jump over.

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double Dutch British  

noun

1. informal incomprehensible talk; gibberish

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double Dutch Idioms  

1. Language that cannot be understood, gibberish, as in They might have been speaking double Dutch, for all I understood . This usage dates from the 1870s (an earlier version, however, had it as high Dutch ) and is heard less often today than the synonym double talk .

2. A game of jump rope in which players jump over two ropes swung in a crisscross fashion.

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Etymology

Origin of double Dutch

First recorded in 1875–80

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

double Dutch Double Dutch

This past summer, we gathered in New Rochelle and did double Dutch lessons, clowning classes and Pilates.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2025

An interlude involving a boisterous park of people playing checkers, basketball and double Dutch lets him do just that.

From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2024

Double Dutch Divas, a local health and fitness nonprofit, is celebrating young double Dutch players and community wellness at its end-of-the-year jump rope event in Seattle’s NewHolly neighborhood.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 23, 2023

Whether this "double Dutch" dynamic re-emerges in Britain, depends on what happens to the housing market after the pandemic.

From Reuters ● Jul. 7, 2021

I can’t imagine there’s enough room for double Dutch.

From "Black Brother, Black Brother" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

They responded by painting a vivid, two-story mural that shows children and families playing a range of sports, including Double Dutch jump rope.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026

The family-friendly event is part of an effort led by Double Dutch Divas CEO Angie Mosley and the Seattle Housing Authority to boost youths’ confidence and exercise levels.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 23, 2023

In August 2017, he proposed to her at the Double Dutch Espresso, where he slid a box across a table containing a ring with a diamond once belonging to his paternal grandmother.

From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2018

Rock has compared his performance in the projects scene to Double Dutch, him trying to find his way in as the jokes keep swinging by.

From Slate ● Dec. 12, 2014

Some of them came up from Tubman Quadrangle with their roommates and rope for Double Dutch.

From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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