double agent

noun

1. a person who spies on a country while pretending to spy for it.

2. a spy in the service of two rival countries, companies, etc.

double agent

noun

1. a spy employed by two mutually antagonistic countries, companies, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of double agent¹

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

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.”

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His KGB contact, who believes him to be a double agent, raises the stakes by asking him for information on Faith—though she has encouraged Gabriel to accept Soviet payments to dupe the Russians.

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The bond market had created what amounted to a double agent—a character who seemed to represent the interests of investors when he better represented the interests of Wall Street bond trading desks.

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Switch sides and return to America as a Russian asset, a double agent.

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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.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• undercover agent www.thesaurus.com