Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Double-edged Sword.

 Double Dutch.Double Entendre (English-French for Un mot à double entente, or à deux ententes). 
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E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Double-edged Sword.
 
Literally, a sword which cuts either way; metaphorically, an argument which makes both for and against the person employing it, or which has a double meaning.
       
“‘Your Delphic sword,’ the panther then replied,
‘Is double-edged, and cuts on either side.’”
   1
       
Dryden: Hind and Panther, part iii. 191–2.
 


 Double Dutch.Double Entendre (English-French for Un mot à double entente, or à deux ententes). 

 
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