Definition

Noun: A person who deliberately deceives others by pretending to be honest and trustworthy while acting in a contradictory or dishonest way. This person engages in duplicity, saying one thing but doing another, often to gain an advantage.

Usage and Examples

A "double-dealer" is someone whose actions are intentionally inconsistent with their words or professed beliefs. The term carries a strong negative connotation of betrayal and untrustworthiness.

Advanced Usage and Nuances

• The concept is often associated with hypocrisy and treachery in personal relationships, business, politics, or espionage.
• The behavior of a double-dealer is typically intentional and strategic, not accidental.

Variants and Related Words

• Double-dealing (noun): The act or practice of being a double-dealer; deception or duplicity.
  • His double-dealing was finally exposed.
• Double-deal (verb, less common): To act as a double-dealer.
  • He was accused of double-dealing with the competition.

Synonyms

• Hypocrite: A person who pretends to have virtues, morals, or beliefs that they do not actually possess.
• Two-faced person: Someone who is insincere and deceitful (informal).
• Deceiver: A person who causes someone to believe something that is not true.
• Traitor: A person who betrays a friend, country, principle, etc. (implies a stronger breach of loyalty).

Idioms and Related Phrases

• To speak with a forked tongue: To tell lies or to say one thing while meaning another. (This idiom is closely related in meaning to being a double-dealer.)
  • The negotiators accused each other of speaking with a forked tongue.
• Wolf in sheep's clothing: A person who hides malicious intent behind a harmless or friendly appearance. (This describes the deceptive nature of a double-dealer.)
  • Be careful of him; he's a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Noun

1. a person who says one thing and does another