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Glite Dictionary
to see double

to see double

8 7.2
To have two pictures of one thing when your eyes or head are not working well
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : ver doble
  • You should be seeing double right about now.
  • think I'm seeing double
  • started seeing double
  • make you see double

Whoa, How about seeing double whatever?

Examples

  • She felt dizzy and started to see double while looking at the bright lights.

  • After finishing the bottle, he began to see double and had trouble walking straight.

  • Well, how come I keep seeing double then?

    Not Fade Away (2012)

  • I thought I was seeing double.

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)

  • By the time I made it to the top of the hill, I was seeing double.

    Finding Your Feet (2017)

  • I try to focus on the screen, but I'm seeing double, so I close my eyes.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • I think I'm seeing double again.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • My goodness, am I seeing double?

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Looks like you're seeing double.

    Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

  • But PK is seeing double.

    Fiction book (1992)

How Clear

blurred
2 3.4
to see double
8 7.2

Surface Forms

see double infinitive
seeing double present participle
sees double third person singular
saw double past
seen double past participle

Morphology

see + double

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'see' (perceive visually) + 'double' (twofold), so a learner who knows both words can infer that it means perceiving two images. This construction is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'ver doble') and describes a literal visual phenomenon rather than an idiomatic shift, making it immediately comprehensible to B1 learners.

Etymology

See double comes from a simple, literal image: when your eyes do not work together, you see a double of the same object. So it means 'to perceive two images of one thing'.