“Mr. A seen as ‘double-edged sword’ for Mr. B.”
I found this expression from a caption in the newspaper. Can you guess what is described in the news article under the heading?
In German, we use the same expression.
zweischneidiges Schwert?
Ja.
In Portuguese, we say “faca de dois gumes”; faca=knife
Thank you for your reply.
Does “dois” mean “two”?
Strangely, we do not use the expression ‘double-barreled shotgun’.
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The expression “double-barreled question” is very familiar to me.
A: “So instead of murdering your neighbor, did you go home and bake a pie which you donated to the Girl Scouts bake sale?”
W: “No.”
A: “So you admit you murdered your neighbor!”
Yes , dois (masculine), duas (feminine).
Yes it is used in English. It means from both side.
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Yeah, that’s a pretty common one, meaning that it cuts in both directions.
There’s also the somewhat-related (but not quite the same) notion that “those who live by the sword, die by the sword.” If something is a double-edged sword, it may harm you as well when you use it, but the second expression suggests if you use something against others, the same thing may be used against you later.
For example, suppose a politician brings in accusations of an extramarital affair to harm an opponent. We might say that the accusation is a double-edged sword in order to suggest that making accusations like that will turn off voters because it feels like dirty politics to bring in someone else’s personal life. On the other hand, we might say “Those who live by the sword, die by the sword” if we think the politician has dirt that might be used against him in a similar way, later.
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