double jeopardy meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

double jeopardy

nounalso spelled Double Jeopardy

Law The act of trying someone twice for the same offense, especially after an acquittal in the first trial.

In the intervening years, the Costa Rican justice system (which has no double jeopardy law) has tried Ann Bender for murder on three separate occasions; of these, she was convicted once and acquitted twice.2025 October 8, Stuart Heritage, “‘Their chemistry made one of their deaths inevitable’: how a billionaire couple’s life in paradise turned deadly”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

noun

Etymology Named after an element of the quiz show Jeopardy!, in turn named for the legal concept double jeopardy.

A round of questioning or other situation where the possible gains and/or losses from choices are magnified.

John McClane: Sorry Hans, wrong guess. Would you like to go for Double Jeopardy where the scores can really change?1988 July, Steven E. de Souza, Die Hard, 20th Century Fox:
Specifically, if after all this travel the application is inefficiently designed, the process gets into double jeopardy, where the scores can really change.1999, “Optimizing Network Traffic”, in Notes from the Field, volume 3, Microsoft Press:

1 more example

We may now be ready for the Double Jeopardy round. Now for the next question2000 April, Edward Bear, The Seven Deadly Needs, Health Communications, pages 87–88: