"double act" meaning in English

See double act in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: double acts [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} double act (plural double acts)
  1. A comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but often with drastically different personalities or behavior, maybe with a stooge or straight man. Categories (topical): Drama Translations (comic pairing): komikerduo (Danish), komediapari (Finnish), parivaljakko (Finnish), duo comique (French), duettistes (French), coppia di comici [feminine] (Italian), coppia comica [feminine] (Italian), 漫才 (manzai) (Japanese), duet [masculine] (Polish), коми́ческий дуэ́т (komíčeskij) [masculine] (Russian), dúo cómico (Spanish), duetistas (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-double_act-en-noun-doYBKRj5 Disambiguation of Drama: 91 9 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 67 33 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 65 35 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 63 37 Disambiguation of 'comic pairing': 89 11
  2. Two objects, senses, people, etc working as one.
    Sense id: en-double_act-en-noun-kjsZJtk2
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: comedy duo, double-act

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for double act meaning in English (4.6kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "double acts",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "double act (plural double acts)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "67 33",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "65 35",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "63 37",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "91 9",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Drama",
          "orig": "en:Drama",
          "parents": [
            "Theater",
            "Art",
            "Entertainment",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, Simon Louvish, Stan and Ollie, the Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy, page 173",
          "text": "It appears clear from Stan's Joe Rock films, where he is very much in control of his material, that he had no intention of becoming part of a double act.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Bob McCabe, The Authorised Biography of Ronnie Barker, page 110",
          "text": "Messrs Barker and Corbett were now seen as a pair. They were never a double act, never totally reliant on one another in the traditional sense of a double act, the kind that television loved so much.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, “Introduction”, in Jonathan Bate, Eric Rasmussen, editors, Hamlet, Modern Library Edition, page vii",
          "text": "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a double act engaged to spy on Hamlet, with the result that he has \"at each ear a hearer.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but often with drastically different personalities or behavior, maybe with a stooge or straight man."
      ],
      "id": "en-double_act-en-noun-doYBKRj5",
      "links": [
        [
          "comic",
          "comic"
        ],
        [
          "pairing",
          "pairing"
        ],
        [
          "relationship",
          "relationship"
        ],
        [
          "gender",
          "gender"
        ],
        [
          "ethnic",
          "ethnic"
        ],
        [
          "profession",
          "profession"
        ],
        [
          "personalities",
          "personalities"
        ],
        [
          "behavior",
          "behavior"
        ],
        [
          "stooge",
          "stooge"
        ],
        [
          "straight man",
          "straight man"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "word": "komikerduo"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "word": "komediapari"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "word": "parivaljakko"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "word": "duo comique"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "word": "duettistes"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "coppia di comici"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "coppia comica"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "manzai",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "word": "漫才"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "duet"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "komíčeskij",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "коми́ческий дуэ́т"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "word": "dúo cómico"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "comic pairing",
          "word": "duetistas"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2024 April 3, Phil McNulty, “Man City 4-1 Aston Villa: Phil Foden produces 'masterclass' to show worth again”, in BBC",
          "text": "City manager Pep Guardiola raised eyebrows before kick-off by keeping his main double act Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland on the bench, but it was an accurate reflection of this Foden masterclass that they were not missed for a moment in a superb 4-1 win.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Two objects, senses, people, etc working as one."
      ],
      "id": "en-double_act-en-noun-kjsZJtk2"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "comedy duo"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "double-act"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "double act"
  ],
  "word": "double act"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "en:Drama"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "double acts",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "double act (plural double acts)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, Simon Louvish, Stan and Ollie, the Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy, page 173",
          "text": "It appears clear from Stan's Joe Rock films, where he is very much in control of his material, that he had no intention of becoming part of a double act.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Bob McCabe, The Authorised Biography of Ronnie Barker, page 110",
          "text": "Messrs Barker and Corbett were now seen as a pair. They were never a double act, never totally reliant on one another in the traditional sense of a double act, the kind that television loved so much.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, “Introduction”, in Jonathan Bate, Eric Rasmussen, editors, Hamlet, Modern Library Edition, page vii",
          "text": "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a double act engaged to spy on Hamlet, with the result that he has \"at each ear a hearer.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but often with drastically different personalities or behavior, maybe with a stooge or straight man."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "comic",
          "comic"
        ],
        [
          "pairing",
          "pairing"
        ],
        [
          "relationship",
          "relationship"
        ],
        [
          "gender",
          "gender"
        ],
        [
          "ethnic",
          "ethnic"
        ],
        [
          "profession",
          "profession"
        ],
        [
          "personalities",
          "personalities"
        ],
        [
          "behavior",
          "behavior"
        ],
        [
          "stooge",
          "stooge"
        ],
        [
          "straight man",
          "straight man"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2024 April 3, Phil McNulty, “Man City 4-1 Aston Villa: Phil Foden produces 'masterclass' to show worth again”, in BBC",
          "text": "City manager Pep Guardiola raised eyebrows before kick-off by keeping his main double act Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland on the bench, but it was an accurate reflection of this Foden masterclass that they were not missed for a moment in a superb 4-1 win.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Two objects, senses, people, etc working as one."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "comedy duo"
    },
    {
      "word": "double-act"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "word": "komikerduo"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "word": "komediapari"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "word": "parivaljakko"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "word": "duo comique"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "word": "duettistes"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "coppia di comici"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "coppia comica"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "manzai",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "word": "漫才"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "duet"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "komíčeskij",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "коми́ческий дуэ́т"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "word": "dúo cómico"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "comic pairing",
      "word": "duetistas"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "double act"
  ],
  "word": "double act"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.