double-barrel meaning: definition, quotations

double-barrel

verb

Of names To join with a hyphen or space.

You be the judge: my husband refuses to double-barrel our surnames. Should I take his last name? [title]2024 November 29, Georgina Lawton, “You be the judge: my husband refuses to double-barrel our surnames. Should I take his last name?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

noun

Informal A double-barrelled gun, now especially a double-barrelled shotgun.

Five minutes before one — brought down a moth / With my new double-barrel — stew'd the thighs, / And made a very tolerable broth […]1819 (date written), John Keats, “The Cap and Bells; or, The Jealousies”, in [Horace Elisha Scudder], editor, The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats, Cambridge edition, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], published 1899, →OCLC, page 229:
Killer started drinking that Friday night and the more he drank, the meaner he got. He sat on the couch smelling like liquor and piss. Mumbling and cursing with his double-barrel slung across his lap.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, pages 46–47:

1 more example

The three of us huddled for a long time, stoned and shivering, before Billy and Tommy finally both aimed their double-barrels at something other than the trees and soda cans they had been popping before.2018, Tony Mangia, Fascination, Horseater Press, →ISBN, page 48: