as in blow
informal
a situation that is bad in two different ways; a situation in which two bad conditions exist at the same time or two bad things happen one after the other
With the cold weather and the high cost of heating fuel, homeowners were hit with a double whammy this winter.
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Recent Examples of double whammy
The double whammy didn’t keep him down.
—
Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 25 Sep. 2025
Being pregnant and also having cancer is a double whammy.
—Wendy Grossman Kantor, PEOPLE, 16 Sep. 2025
Younger Americans, exposed to the double whammy of high student debt and low entry-level hiring, are under even more financial pressure.
—Matt Egan, CNN Money, 16 Sep. 2025
That’s the double whammy at play here.
—Alexander Puutio, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for double whammy
Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 25 Sep. 2025
Being pregnant and also having cancer is a double whammy.
—Wendy Grossman Kantor, PEOPLE, 16 Sep. 2025
Younger Americans, exposed to the double whammy of high student debt and low entry-level hiring, are under even more financial pressure.
—Matt Egan, CNN Money, 16 Sep. 2025
That’s the double whammy at play here.
—Alexander Puutio, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for double whammy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for double whammy
Noun
-
The first accounts of cheating and payoffs during exam week surfaced—a blow to the belief in fairness on which the whole system of guilds depended.—
George Packer,
The Atlantic,
6 Nov. 2025
-
Google had hoped to void those changes with an appeal, but the ruling issued in July by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a legal blow for the tech giant, which has been waylaid in three separate antitrust trials affecting different pillars of its internet empire.—
Emma Burleigh,
Fortune,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
The journalists who rushed to the scene managed to jot down the names of about a dozen—the VIPs (there were three members of parliament on the train that day, which was a factor in the disaster) and a couple of servants.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Nov. 2025
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As a train barrels toward her near the final moments of the video, Perry spots a daisy on the tracks — seemingly a nod to her daughter — and dodges disaster.—
Stephanie Giang-Paunon,
FOXNews.com,
7 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Ege didn’t know it at the time, but the tragedy that happened to Musyoka has been playing out across the nation as pedestrian deaths near a four-decade high.—
Johnny Dodd,
PEOPLE,
8 Nov. 2025
-
Burma’s plight is not just a domestic tragedy but echoes across the globe.—
Kim Aris,
Time,
7 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Double whammy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/double%20whammy. Accessed 10 Nov. 2025.
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