dual-purpose
Americanadjective
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serving two functions.
a dual-purpose database for research and teaching.
-
(of cattle) bred for two purposes, as to provide beef and milk.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of dual-purpose
First recorded in 1910–15
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.
Christian McCaffrey has been carrying the 49ers along and looks back to his dual-purpose best - sitting seventh in receiving, ninth in rushing and first in combined yardage.
From BBC
They include military parades by the Russian settlement to mark their commemorations for the end of World War Two, the flying of a Soviet flag over Russian infrastructure, and growing suspicion that the Chinese have made their Svalbard research station dual-purpose - for military espionage.
From BBC
Also to the Jeep’s advantage is its dual-purpose nature; it’s equally at home on paved surfaces or when venturing off-road.
From Seattle Times
With an efficiency apartment, the rooms are created by walls and there is very little opportunity to make a dual-purpose room out of any of the space in an efficiency apartment.
From Encyclopedia.com
The projectiles being sent to Ukraine are commonly referred to by the name given to those small grenades: dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, or D.P.I.C.M. — and pronounced by some officials as dee-PICK-’ems.
From New York Times
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.