double agent
Americannoun
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a person who spies on a country while pretending to spy for it.
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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
"I really did feel a tremendous loyalty to MI6," the Soviet double agent said, but his over-ruling fealty was to "the other side".
From BBC • Jan. 14, 2025
The path of the double agent was lonely and perilous.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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.
