Sentence examples for a double definition from inspiring English sources

The pleasure of a double definition usually lies in its simplicity.

A double definition can on occasion be a thing of beauty; a quintuple definition invariably is.

If I see a two-word clue, I tend to start by trying to see if it's a double definition.

In Tuesday's Toughie, MynoT had a double definition - a device familiar to followers of this blog's 'For Beginners' series... 10ac Dictionary found in Yorkshire city (8)...to give an answer familiar to anyone who may have read our interview with puzzling's top word-collector, Anne R BRADFORD.

This is a clue based on the principle we've been talking about, but it's not a double definition: 16ac Break one's nose, like Gill (8) Once you read "break" as a noun and forget the capital "G", you see BREATHER three times: from Rufus again, it's a triple definition!

He notes that electrons have a double definition as a particle and a wave.

The Alphabetical Takeaway is a singularly irritating device in which a different letter of the alphabet is ignored in the wordplay to each of 26 clues: for instance, "I'm a superhero" might result in BOATMAN (a double-definition, if you ignore the "O" in one of them) and "Disney's first white-knuckle ride" might clue WALTZER (this time, ignoring the "Z").

As a setter I didn't consider gender an issue until two years ago when a clue I wrote caused a bit of a hoo-ha: 24ac Woman in charge of automobile club (6) As you can see, it's a simple double definition of DRIVER.

If you've just been sweating and chewing over a convoluted clue involving an anagram inside the initial letters of some other words, all of them reversed, a short-clued double definition is like a cool, refreshing sorbet.

Now, there's a reason we kicked off with Rufus and Dante: they're the same setter, and one I associate with an especially nifty double definition.

For the beginner, the double definition can be a fast, effective gateway drug from the quick crossword to the serious stuff.