Encyclopedia

Double check valve A double check valve or double check assembly (DCA) is a backflow prevention device designed to protect water supplies from contamination. It consists of two check valves assembled in series usually with a ball valve or gate valve installed at each end for isolation and testing.
Double chin A double chin is a phenomenon caused by a layer of subcutaneous fat around the neck that sags down and creates a wrinkle, making the owner appear to have a second chin. It is most common on the elderly and the obese, and is more visible when the bottom jaw is lowered.
Double imputation In Christian theology, the understanding of justification as double imputation refers to the imputation of believers' sin to Christ and the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers. It is closely related to the Reformed doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone.
Double indemnity Double Indemnity is a clause or provision in a life insurance or accident policy whereby the company agrees to pay twice the face of the contract in cases of accidental death. An accidental death is a death that is neither intentionally caused by a human being, like homicide, nor foreseeable, like cancer.
Double integral In mathematical analysis, there is an important distinction between a double integral and an iterated integral. To one who has had an advanced calculus course but not a measure-theoretic real analysis course, the difference may seem subtle.
Double jeopardy Double jeopardy is a procedural defense (and, in many countries such as the United States, Canada, Japan and India, a constitutional right) that forbids a defendant from being tried a second time for the same crime. At common law a defendant can plead autrefois acquit or autrefois convict; meaning the defendant has been acquitted or convicted of the same offence previously.
Double jeopardy (marketing) Double Jeopardy is the name given to the statistical phenomenon in marketing where, with few exceptions, brand loyalty is lower amongst buyers of brands with a low market share compared to that of buyers of brands with a large market share. Thus the market leader in the industry enjoys a high level of sales because of the customer loyalty; a higher level of probability of repeat purchase.
Double jigger A double jigger is usually a stainless steel bartending tool used to measure alcohol or drink mixers amounts when making cocktails. This bar tool looks like a pipe with two opposing steel shot glasses attched to one end.
Double junction A double junction is a railway junction where a double-track railway splits into two double-track lines. Usually, one line is the main line and carries traffic through the junction at normal speed, while the other track is a branch line that carries traffic through the junction at reduced speed.
Double Jeopardy (film) Double Jeopardy is a film made in 1999 starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd, about a woman who is framed by her husband for his murder. She serves several years in prison and then emerges bent on finding her husband and son.
Double knitting Double knitting is a form of knitting in which two fabrics are knit simultaneously with two yarns on one pair of needles. The fabrics may be inseparable, as in interlock knitted fabrics, or they can simply be two unconnected fabrics.
Double Klondike Double Klondike is a variant on the playing card game popularly known as either Solitaire or Patience, specifically a variant on the most well-known version of the game, Klondike. It is sometimes referred to simply as "Double Solitaire".
Double layer A double layer is a structure in a plasma and consists of two parallel layers with opposite electrical charge. The sheets of charge cause a strong electric field and a correspondingly sharp change in voltage (electrical potential) across the double layer.
Double Leaf Society The Double Leaf Society (双葉会 Futabakai) was a Japanese military secret society of the 1920s, comprising radical officers with a belief in ultranationalism and the need for a purge of the 'corrupt' Chōshū elements of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Double Leg (trick) A double leg is a move that originated from Capoeira but was incorporate into tricking like many other martial arts moves because of its difficulty and aesthetics. Its Capoeira name is Armada Dupla, which means a double armada.
Double Loves Double Loves are a transforming toy from 1987 manufactured by the Commonwealth Toy & Novelty Co. The toys could change between two different animals - one wearing day-time clothes and the other wearing pajamas.
Double majority A double majority is the name given to a vote which requires a majority of votes according to two separate criteria. The mechanism is usually used to require strong support for any measure considered to be of great importance.
Double minute Double minutes are small fragments of extrachromosomal DNA, which have been observed in a large number of human tumors including breast, lung, ovary and colon. They are a manifestation of gene amplification during the development of tumors, which give the cells selective advantages for growth and survival.
Double Metaphone The Double Metaphone search algorithm is a phonetic algorithm written by Lawrence Philips and is the second generation of his Metaphone algorithm. Its implementation was described in the June 2000 issue of C/C++ Users Journal.
Double negative elimination In logic and the propositional logic, the inference rules double negative elimination (also called double negation elimination, double negative introduction, double negation introduction, or simply double negation) allow deriving the double negative equivalent by adding (for double negative introduction) or removing (for double negative elimination) a pair of negation signs. This is based on the equivalence of, for example,
Double Ninth Festival The Double Ninth Festival ( or , also or Chung Yeung Festival in Hong Kong), observed on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar (October 30 in 2006), is a traditional Chinese holiday, mentioned in writing since before the East Han period.
Double or Die Double Or Die is the third novel in the Young Bond series depicting Ian Fleming's superspy James Bond as a teenager in the 1930s. The novel, written by Charlie Higson, was released in the UK on January 4, 2007 by Puffin Books.
Double or nothing The definition of double or nothing is when someone is down in a bet and they call "double or nothing", meaning they can either double their original debt by losing, or erase their debt by winning the wager.
Double parking Double parking is the usually illegal practice of parking a vehicle to the side of a row of vehicles that is already parked next to the curb. This often prevents some of the vehicles in the first row from departing and always obstructs a traffic lane or bike lane (to the extent of often making the street impassable in one-way single-lane situations) .
Double patenting Double patenting is the protection of one single invention by two patents usually owned by the same proprietor. "It is an accepted principle in most patent systems that two patents cannot be granted to the same applicant for one invention".
Double penetration dildo A Double penetration dildo is a sex toy that allows the double penetration and is designed in the form of two penis-shaped stimulators that come separately or fixed on the single shaft. Double-ended dildos (shafts with two heads) are included also into this category.
Double play In baseball, a double play (denoted on statistics sheets by DP) is the act of making two outs during the same continuous playing action. In baseball slang, making a double play is referred to as "turning two.
Double posting [the vast majority are double posts, higher forms of multiple posting are also possible and can lead to even stronger resentment from the forum community. Here, a user who had previously double posted is reprimanded for triple posting later on.
Double precision In computing, double precision is a computer numbering format that occupies two storage locations in computer memory at address and address+1. A double precision number, sometimes simply a double, may be defined to be an integer, fixed point, or floating point.
Double push Double push is an inline speed skating technique. Its major advantage over the previously practised "classic" technique is that it allows the skater to do useful work during the part of the stride that was "wasted", and therefore to go faster.
Double Prices Double Prices is a pricing game on the American television game show The Price Is Right. Debuting on the show's first episode on September 4, 1972, it is played for a four-digit prize worth more than $2,000; it has also been played for a car.
Double quasar When two quasars are so nearly in the same direction as seen from Earth that they appear to be a single quasar to the naked eye but may be separated by the use of telescopes, they are referred to as a double quasar. These are two different quasars, and not the same quasar that is gravitationally lensed.
Double standard A double standard, according to the World Book Dictionary, is a standard applied more leniently to one group than to another. For example, the belief that it is permissible for teenage boys, but not teenage girls, to engage in premarital sex is a double standard.
Double stop A double stop, in music terminology, is the act of playing two notes simultaneously on a melodic percussion instrument or stringed instrument, for example a violin, a viola, a cello or a guitar. In performing a double stop, two separate strings are depressed (stopped) by the fingers, and bowed or plucked simultaneously.
Double subscript notation In Engineering, Double-subscript notation is notation used to indicate some variable between two points (each point being represented by one of the subscripts). In electronics, the notation is usually used to indicated the direction of current or voltage, while in mechanical engineering it is sometimes used to describe the force or stress between two points, and sometimes even a component that spans between two points (like a beam on a bridge or truss).
Double switch In baseball, the double switch is a type of player substitution. The double switch allows a manager to make a pitching substitution and defensive (fielding) substitution while at the same time improving the offensive (batting) lineup of a team.
Double switching Double switching is the practice in railway signalling in particular of cutting the power to a relay in both the positive and negative sides, so that a single false feed of current to that relay is unlikely to cause a wrong side failure. It is analogous to double insulation.
Double Shot This single by The Residents is titled "Double Shot" (It includes the " marks). Although the back track listing has the words "God in Three Persons" between them, it tells us that 'The Thing About Them' is adapted from it and 'Double Shot' served as inspiration for it.
Double Star Mission Double Star is a satellite based space mission sponsored by the European Space Agency and the China National Space Administration. It is the first space mission launched by China to investigate Earth's magnetosphere.
Double Switch Double Switch is a full motion video game released for the Sega CD (1993), the Sega Saturn, Mac and Windows 95. The game is produced by Digital Pictures and has a similar format to their earlier game titled Night Trap.
Double tap Double tap or DT is the tactical shooting technique of pulling the trigger of a weapon twice in quick succession to deliver two shots to the same target zone. It is used mainly in close-quarter (urban) scenarios in both police and military situations, by SWAT teams, Special Police, Special Forces, and conventional military forces.
Double taxation Double taxation is a situation in which two or more taxes may need to be paid for the same asset, financial transaction and arises due to overlap between different countries' tax laws and jurisdictions. The liability is often mitigated by "tax treaties" between countries.
Double the Fist Double the Fist is a satirical Australian television show that airs on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; it has also been broadcast in the UK, Canada, Spain, New Zealand and Brazil. It is often described as "a cross between The Goodies and Jackass".
Double tonic A double tonic is a chord progression, melodic motion, or shift of level consisting of a "regular back-and-forth motion", in melody similar to Bruno Nettl's pendulum type though it uses small intervals, most often a whole tone though may be almost a semitone to a minor third (see pendular thirds). (van der Merwe 1989, p.
Double torus In mathematics, a double torus is a topological object formed by the connected sum of two torii. That is to say, from each of two torii the interior of a disk is removed, and the boundaries of the two disks are identified (glued together), forming a double torus.
Double torus knot A double torus knot is a closed curve drawn on the surface called a double torus (think two doughnuts stuck together). More technically, a double torus knot is the homeomorphic image of a circle in SÂł which can be realized as a subset of a genus two handlebody in SÂł.
Double Tap Double Tap (槍王) is a 2000 Hong Kong movie starring Leslie Cheung, Alex Fong Chung-sun, Monica Chan and Ruby Wong. It was directed by Bruce Law Chi-Leung in 2000 and was one of Leslie Cheung's memorable action movies since A Better Tomorrow.
Double Ten Day Double Tenth Day () is the national day of the Republic of China (ROC; now in Taiwan) and celebrates the start of the Wuchang Uprising of October 10, 1911 (1911-10-10), which led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. It is therefore also known in Chinese as National Celebration Day ().
Double Trap Double Trap is a clay pigeon shooting sport, one of the ISSF shooting events. It is a recreational and competitive activity where participants use a shotgun to attempt to break a clay disk flung away from the shooter at high speed.
Double Trouble (film) Double Trouble is a 1967 musical film starring Elvis Presley. It is yet another terrible film, notable only for being a clumsy attempt at bringing Presley into something resembling a fashionable British Invasion setting.
Double Up Double Up is the sophomore album of Harlem rapper Ma$e released in 1999 and distributed by Bad Boy Records. Considering his debut album, Harlem World, was highly successful, reaching 4x Platinum, Double Up was labelled as a commercial failure.
Double Vision (film) Double Vision (Chinese: 雙瞳, Shuang tong) is a 2002 film directed by Chen Kuo-fu. The plot is about an FBI agent working with a troubled Taiwanese cop to hunt for a serial killer who is embedding a mysterious black fungus in the brains of the victims.
Double whole note In music, a double whole note (American or "German" terminology) or breve (British or "classical" terminology) is a note lasting twice as long as a whole note (or semibreve). In medieval mensural notation, the brevis (ancestor of the modern breve) was one of the shortest note lengths (hence its name, which is the Latin cognate of "[and could be either a half or a third as long as the longa].
Double wishbone suspension In automobiles, a double wishbone (or "upper and lower A-arm") suspension is an independent suspension design using two parallel wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone (or arm) has two mounting positions to the chassis and one joint at the knuckle.
Double Whammy (by Carl Hiaasen) Double Whammy by Carl Hiassen could just as easily have been named Bass Fishing In America -- though it bears no resemblance at all to Trout Fishing in America. On the surface, it is a murder mystery set in Florida, starting in the professional bass-fishing circuit region where its plot twists around, like the Everglades, into the murky
Double Z Double Z is a pulp novel featuring the Shadow. Double Z is a mysterious mastermind who sends letters to the police, sometimes tipping off the plans of other criminals and sometimes his own crimes and then committing them under the nose of the police.
Double-aspect theory In the philosophy of mind, double-aspect theory is the view that the mental and the physical are two aspects of the same substance. The theory's relationship to neutral monism is ill-defined, but one proffered distinction says that whereas neutral monism allows the context of a given group of neutral elements to determine whether the group is mental, physical, both, or neither, double-aspect theory requires the mental and the physical to be inseparable and irreducible (though distinct).
Double-barred Finch The Double-barred Finch (Taeniopygia bichenovii) is an estrildid finch found in open savannah-like habitats in northern and eastern Australia. They are sometimes referred to as bicheno finches; and also as owl finches, owing to the dark ring of feathers around their faces.
Double-barrelled name In English-speaking and some other western countries, a double-barrelled name is a family name with two parts, which may or may not be joined with a hyphen, for example Bowes-Lyon or Fraser Darling. The term is an analogy with double-barrelled shotgun.
Double-blown The term "double-blown" is a marketing term used by owners of many head shops in reference to a style of lampworking referred to among the manufacturers/artists of the glass as "inside-out". It is possible that those who originated the term had seen furnace glass work (the type of glassblowing commonly demonstrated on television) in which a gather of color is repeatedly dipped in clear glass, encasing the color.
Double-breasted In clothing, double-breasted refers to a coat or jacket or similar garment having a very wide overlap in the front and, usually, two parallel rows of buttons or snaps. (By contrast a single-breasted coat has a narrower overlap and one row of buttons.
Double-button cufflinks Double-button cufflinks are a type of cufflink which are made of two buttons connected by a piece of thread of elastic. They are usually included with dress shirts that have french cuffs, and are made with the same kind of buttons as the front of the shirt.
Double-clad fiber In fiber optics, a double-clad fiber (or doubly clad fiber) is an optical fiber that has a relatively small-diameter core and two layers of cladding. Usually, both cladding layers have lower refractive index than the core, and the inner cladding layer has lower refractive index than the outer layer.
Double-crested Cormorant The Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) is a North American member of the cormorant family of seabirds. Its name is derived from the Greek words phalakros (bald) and kora (raven), and the Latin auritus (eared).
Double-deck elevator Double-deck elevators are elevators designed such that two elevator cars are attached one on top of the other. This allows passengers on two consecutive floors to be able to use the elevator simultaneously, significantly increasing the passenger capacity of an elevator shaft.
Double-duty dollar The term "double duty dollar" was used during the early and middle 1900’s in the context of the economic plight of the African American community. Those in the pulpit as well as social activists such as Booker T.
Double-elimination tournament A double-elimination tournament is a competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost two games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimination tournament, in which only one defeat results in elimination.
Double-ended synchronization For two connected exchanges in a communications network, a double-ended synchronization (also called double-ended control) is a synchronization control scheme in which the phase error signals used to control the clock at one telephone exchange are derived by comparison with the phase of the incoming digital signal and the phase of the internal clocks at both exchanges.
Double-ender Double-ender refers to a technique used to conduct televised interviews over long distances in the 1980s before satellite television became commonplace, in order to provide video to what would otherwise be an audio-only interview. It was commonplace in such news programs as The Journal on CBC Television.
Double-entry bookkeeping system In record keeping, particulary accountancy, the double-entry bookkeeping (or double-entry accounting) system is the basis of the standard system used by businesses and other organizations to record financial transactions. Its premise is that a business's (or other organization's) financial condition and results of operations are best represented by several variables, called accounts, each of which reflects a particular aspect of the business as a monetary value.
Double-exchange mechanism The double-exchange mechanism is a theory that predicts the relative ease with which an electron may be exchanged between two species. For example; consider the 180 degree interaction of Mn-O-Mn in which the Mn "eg" orbitals are directly interacting with the O "2p" orbitals.
Double-Fake: Under the Gundam Mobile Suit Gundam Double-Fake (ダブルフェイク アンダー･ザ･ガンダム) was an original Gundam manga created by Yuji Ushida, originally published in Bandai's Model Journal magazine. After the story was completed it was compiled under the title Double-Fake: Under the Gundam.
Double-gate transistor In a field effect transistor, the "gate" controls flow of electricity through the "channel" portion of the transistor. In conventional MOSFETs a single gate placed on top of the channel controls the conductivity.
Double-checked locking In software engineering, double-checked locking is a software design pattern originally known as "double-checked locking optimization." The pattern is unsafe in some versions of some languages on some modern computer hardware and/or optimizing compilers.
Double-lined mackerel The double-lined mackerel, Grammatorcynus bilineatus, is a species in the family Scombridae. It is a commercial fish and is distributed from the Red Sea to the Andaman Sea, also from the northern coast of Australia to the Ryūkyū Islands, as far as Fiji.
Double-marking language A double-marking language is one where the grammatical marks showing relations between different constituents of a phrase tend to be placed on both the heads (or nuclei) of the phrase in question, and on the modifiers or dependents. Pervasive double marking is rather rare, but instances of double-marking occur in many languages.
Double-sideband reduced carrier transmission Double-sideband reduced carrier transmission (DSB-RC): transmission in which (a) the frequencies produced by amplitude modulation are symmetrically spaced above and below the carrier and (b) the carrier level is reduced for transmission at a fixed level below that which is provided to the modulator.
Double-sideband suppressed-carrier transmission Double-sideband suppressed-carrier transmission (DSB-SC): transmission in which (a) frequencies produced by amplitude modulation are symmetrically spaced above and below the carrier frequency and (b) the carrier level is reduced to the lowest practical level, ideally completely suppressed.
Double-slit experiment The double-slit experiment consists of letting light diffract through two slits producing fringes or wave-like patterns on a screen. These fringes or interference patterns have light and dark regions corresponding to where the light waves have constructively and destructively interfered.
Double-squares and Squares Double-squares and Squares are terms which point to the uncommon sizes of canvas Vincent van Gogh used exclusively during the final weeks of his life in Auvers, in June and July 1890.These terms were coined by Ronald Pickvance, one of the leading experts in Van Gogh-research.
Double-stroke roll The double-stroke roll is a rudiment used by drummers and percussionists in a variety of music styles. Unlike the single-stroke roll, which is played simply by alternating strokes, the double-stroke roll also gives the player the opportunity to make use of any natural rebound given by the surface of the instrument being played.
Double-Standards and Human Rights Protection There have been criticisms that Western countries have had double standards when it came to the prosecution of known war criminals and human rights violators . Various examples of this have included the refusal of the US to assist in the prosecution of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet but the US has certainly been willing to facilitate the prosecution of foreign leaders who are enemies of the United States as war criminals such as Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic
Double-take A double-take is a comedy convention in which a character will look at something, but not react to the visual stimulus immediately. The response—often fear, anger or surprise, but on occasion delight—takes several seconds to occur, at which time the character will look back at the thing in question (or perhaps run back into a room after exiting) and deliver a reaction (often exaggerated for humorous effect).
Double-tension Drum manufacturers use several methods to apply tension to drum heads; the preferred way is to tighten the heads with a hoop that is held tight to the drum shell with a number of individual threaded rods which connect to stanchions mounted with bolts onto the outside of the drum shell.
Double-Tongued Word Wrester The Double-Tongued Word Wrester is an online dictionary cataloguing "a growing lexicon of fringe English, focusing on slang, jargon, new words, and more." It features definitions and citations of strange and unusual words or phrases such as "parergon," "epigenetics" and "bleeding deacon.
Doublebois railway station Doublebois station in Cornwall was at the summit of the Cornwall Railway which opened on 4 May 1859. A siding was provided at this time to enable trains to be split into smaller parts should any require this to enable them to be worked over the steep inclines up from Liskeard and Bodmin Road.
Doubled die Doubled die is a term in numismatics used to refer to doubling in the design elements of a coin. Doubled dies can appear as an outline of the design or in extreme cases, having legends and dates appear twice in an overlapping fashion.
Doubleheader (television) Doubleheader is used by network television to refer to two games in any sport aired back-to-back on the same network, even though they do not involve the same two teams (three such games may be referred to as a tripleheader, this scenario being encountered most frequently in basketball). A doubleheader purposely coincides with a league's scheduling of "early" and "late" games.
Doublemoon Doublemoon is an independent record label based in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded in 1998, the company focuses mainly on jazz and electronica artists, as well as alternative bands such as Replikas and Baba Zula, and world music artists like Mercan Dede.
Doubles (food) Doubles is a common street food in Trinidad and Tobago. It is a sandwich made with two flat fried breads, called "bhara" (hence the name "doubles") filled with curried chick peas, commonly called channa.
Doubles football Doubles is a game of football consisting of one goalkeeper, one goal and a number of teams of two people. The game begins with all the teams in the first round and the object is to score and progress to the next round.
Doubleshot Doubleshot, first published in 2000, was the sixth novel by Raymond Benson featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond (including film novelizations). Carrying the Ian Fleming Publications copyright, it was first published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton and in the United States by Putnam.
Doublespeak Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often resulting in a communication bypass. Such language is often associated with governmental, military, and corporate institutions and its deliberate use by these is what distinguishes it from other euphemisms.
Doublespeak argument A Doublespeak argument is the name given to an argument, or debate, where one or more sides seems to be using reasonings that are not the real reasonings for that side. This is usually alleged to have been done because the real reasonings may be offensive in some way, and that side feels that its other reasonings will be strong enough to win the debate.
Doublet (clothing) A doublet is a man's snug-fitting buttoned jacket that was worn in Western Europe from Middle Ages through to the mid-17th century. Originally it was a mere stitched and quilted lining ("doubling"), worn under a hauberk or cuirass to prevent bruising and chafing.
Doublet (linguistics) In etymology, two or more words in the same language are called doublets or etymological twins (or possibly triplets, etc.) when they have the same etymological root but have entered the language through different routes.
Doublet-triplet splitting problem In particle physics, the doublet-triplet (splitting) problem is a problem of some Grand Unified Theories, such as SU(5), SO(10), E_6. Grand unified theories predict Higgs bosons (doublets of SU(2)) arise from representations of the unified group that contain other states, in particular, states that are triplets of color.
Doubletake (TV series) The BBC comedy programme Doubletake made extensive use of look-alikes playing their doubles in apparently embarrassing situations, seen through CCTV cameras and amateur video, using distance shots and shaky camera-work to disguise the true identity of those being filmed.
Doublethink Doublethink (known in Oldspeak but never used as reality control) is an integral concept in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and is the act of holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously, fervently believing both, despite being notionally aware of their incompatibility – rather, being willfully unaware.
Doubletracking Doubletracking is an audio recording technique, in which a performer sings or plays along with their own prerecorded part, for dramatic effect, self-harmonization or to produce a stronger sound than with a single voice or instrument. This practise is also referred to as "multi-phasing" (or, in the vernacular, simply "phasing"), and mimics the impression of vibrato as well as richness.

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