double in brass

Idioms  

1. Serve in two capacities, as in In this company everyone is asked to double in brass occasionally. This expression was originally used in the traveling circus, where, for example, a clown was also expected to play an instrument in the street parade. The original allusion, however, is to an instrumentalist who plays more than one instrument in an ensemble, a practice particularly common among players of brass instruments. [Late 1800s]

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Example Sentences

We're on the air 15 hours a week, mostly without script, so everyone has to double in brass.

From Time Magazine Archive

Instead, it requires that the individual service chiefs of staff double in brass as members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which functions under a nonvoting chairman as a sort of advisory committee seeking unified military policy.

From Time Magazine Archive

Can a working newsman double in brass as a working public personality without fear of embarrassment?

From Time Magazine Archive

Well, that's up to you," says I. "Can't some of your crowd double in brass?

From Project Gutenberg

Charles Duprez, of Duprez and Benedict, answered one of Alfred's letters thusly: Dear Sir: In answer to your letter—do you double in brass?

From Project Gutenberg