double-deckern.
/ˌdʌblˈdɛkə/, U.S. /ˌdəb(ə)lˈdɛkər/ 1. A ship having two decks above the waterline. Cf. two-decker n. 1. Now rare.
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1760 Gazetteer & London Daily Advertiser 29 Nov. This vessel..extends in heighth of upper works, equal to many of two and three hundred tons burthen, being a double-decker.
1835 Western Monthly Mag. June 339 The Washington is a splendid double decker, calculated to carry three hundred tons.
1919 A. F. Schauffler Memories Happy Boyhood 21 There were single-deck frigates, double deckers and three deckers.
2019 South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) (Nexis) 10 Nov. The vessel was converted into a double-decker without approval.
2. Originally and chiefly U.S.
a. A large barn having two floors or storeys above the lowest floor, esp. one built into a hillside or slope. Now chiefly historical.Barns of this type appear to have originated in Pennsylvania at the end of the 18th cent. They typically have stalls for livestock on the lowest floor (which is often at basement level) and a threshing floor in the top storey, the middle storey housing a granary space and storage bays for hay and straw, allowing fodder and bedding for the animals to be passed down to the stable area below.
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1839 Farmer's Cabinet 15 Feb. 244/1 My brother, residing in New Garden township [sc. in Pennsylvania], had erected a barn commonly known as a ‘double decker’.
1851 Amer. Farmer Oct. 137/1 His barn is of brick, a double decker, and the largest we have seen.
1987 C. Quillman & S. H. Quillman Hist. Conestoga Turnpike ii. 29 The double-decker was particularly popular with the county's dairy farmers.
b. A type of tenement house typically having two retail units at street level and four apartments on each of five or six upper floors, two at the front and two at the rear, separated from one another by a central corridor. Now historical.Chiefly with reference to buildings of this type having inadequate fire escapes, sanitary facilities, ventilation, and access to natural light, which were built on standard lots 25 feet wide in crowded metropolitan areas (esp. in New York and Chicago) before the Tenement House Act of 1901.
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1874 N.Y. Times 17 Nov. 2/6 Nos. 21 and 29 North William street, known as ‘double-deckers’, were also inspected.
c1886 E. B. Foote Radical Remedy in Social Sci. 37 We must stop the erection of old-fashioned double-deckers; we must weed out the most dilapidated and unsanitary houses.
1915 Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) 3 Jan. (Sunday Mag.)16/2 From that year [sc. 1884] on landlords were no longer able to put up solid blocks of double-deckers without proper air shafts or without windows, air, and light throughout the inside.
2019 Z. J. Violette Decorated Tenement ii. 76 In a double-decker, two apartments were arranged side by side across the width of a building.
3. A bridge or road having lanes or carriageways on two levels, one above the other.
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1853 Alexandria Gaz. 30 June The bridge is to be a double-decker, the upper story for the railway and underneath for carriages.
1913 24th Ann. Rep. of Dept. of Parks & Boulevards, Detroit 24 The present location will accommodate..eight times as much if the new bridge is made a double decker.
2007 Jerusalem Rep. (Nexis) 8 Jan. (Israel) 16 The Ayalon highway..could be made a double-decker for billions of shekels.
4.
a. A cake or pastry having two or (occasionally) more layers; (in later use also) a loaf with a smaller upper portion.In quot. 1855 perhaps simply: an exceptionally tall pie.
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1855 J. Grant Yellow Frigate xiii. 99 A tower of paste, containing all the odds and ends the cook could collect in his larder..designated a double-decker.
1894 Grantham Jrnl. 8 Sept. 7/3 A ‘double decker’, a cake to which no description in print could do justice.
1902 Fortn. Rev. June 1008 The English ‘double-decker’ is a fearful and wonderful production that errs on the side of heaviness.
2017 Spectator (Hamilton, Ont.) (Nexis) 8 Apr. g10 One slice of this double-decker was enough for four of us.
b. Originally and chiefly U.S. A sandwich having two layers of filling between three slices of bread; a club sandwich. Cf. double-decker sandwich n.
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1891 San Antonio (Texas) Daily Light 27 Apr. The sandwich man concluded..with a seductive list of the various kinds of sandwiches that tickle the public palate... Turkey, chicken, ham,..double deckers, [etc.]
1929 Brownsville (Texas) Herald 27 Feb. 6/2 Among the newer sandwiches are the ‘double deckers and canal boats’.
1984 Cincinnati Mag. Oct. 135/1 Hearty lunch Mon–Fri 11–2:30, featuring special recipe chilli, double-deckers and other sandwiches.
2008 Cincinnati Mag. Feb. 272/1 Abby's Pub and Grill... Features hot sandwiches, double deckers, two daily soups.
5.
a. Originally U.S. A tram or streetcar having seating for passengers both at ground level and on an upper deck. Now chiefly historical.
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the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > covering > a layer > [adjective] > two layers
double-decked1620
double-deck1755
double-decker1858
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > public service vehicle > [noun] > bus or tram with specific number of decks
double-decker1858
single-decker1896
two-decker1904
1858 Newark (Ohio) Advocate 3 Mar. Some double-deckers carry one hundred and fifty passengers.
1881 Otago Daily Times (N.Z.) 3 Nov. 2/5 There are now nine additional cars on the way for use on the city and suburban tramways, four of them being double-deckers.
1922 Times of India 25 July 10/2 (headline) Bombay tramcars. The double deckers.
1992 Financial Times 6 Apr. 23/2 Today's tram bears little resemblance to its predecessor. More like a small train than the old wooden double deckers, it typically consists of a pair of single-deck cars.
b. Originally U.S. A railway carriage or freight car having two decks, one above the other; (also) a train having cars or carriages of this type.
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1878 Sci. Amer. 12 Jan. 24/1 The car is a double decker, there being room for freight in the body of the car, and on each side of the saddle.
1922 Hutchinson (Kansas) News 12 Dec. 13/2 The car was a double decker and the consignment consisted of 177 hogs.
1999 Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gaz. 22 Oct. e3/1 He was helping workers at a railroad company remodel the car, turning a double-decker into one big compartment.
2013 Financial Times 13 Mar. 8/2 The core high-speed network will run trains that are larger than current intercity carriages and could include double-deckers.
c. A bus having two decks, one above the other, the top deck being accessible by means of stairs; = double-decker bus n.In quot. 1891 denoting a horse-drawn omnibus (cf. bus n.1 1a).
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1891 Weekly Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 5 July 17/1 The people [sc. in London] are carried by hansom cabs and omnibus. The latter are double-deckers and take the place of street cars.
1905 Edinb. Evening News 4 Aug. 2/4 The Scottish Motor Traction Company, Ltd., announce..a full service of motor omnibuses between Edinburgh and Queensferry. These omnibuses will be double-deckers, with inside and outside seats.
1955 Times 6 May 19/5 Our policy of substituting double-deckers for single-deckers was continued.
2002 Times 14 Feb. (T2 section) 3/6 The double-decker lumbered down the high street and pulled into the bus stop.
d. An airliner having two passenger decks, one above the other.The first full double-deck passenger aircraft, the Bréguet 763 ‘Deux-Ponts’, was developed in 1949 and used commercially by Air France from 1953.
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1954 Mil. Rev. Mar. 70/2 (caption) Breguet 763 Provence is a double-decker.
2008 Sunday Mail (Australia) (Nexis) 1 June tv guide 11 The amazing airborne double-decker that is revolutionising international travel.
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1872 People (Indianapolis) 3 Nov. 5/5 (advt.) Double deckers in boots and shoes just received at 21 North Pennsylvania street.
1907 Bush Advocate (Dannevirke, N.Z.) 6 Nov. 8/6 Our Double Deckers (own make) can't be beat for solid wear.
1921 Boot & Shoe Recorder 1 Oct. 93/2 We find by taking this last, featuring black and tan grain leathers in fancy punches, wing tips, some imitation ball straps, heavy soles, rolled edges, double deckers, railroad stitches, we can have an unusual shoe produced which appeals to the young man as something new.
7. Mining. A miners' cage (cage n. 5a) having two platforms or decks, one on top of the other. Now rare.
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1876 W. Wright Hist. Big Bonanza xli. 301 Those [sc. cages in the shaft of a silver mine] with two platforms are called ‘double-deckers’.
1949 Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, New S. Wales) 25 May 8/1 Men below..were stranded as the outgoing cable of the runabout cage piled on top and twisted about the cable of No. 2 cage–the double decker.
8. A bunk bed.
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1891 B. Booth N.Y. Inferno Explored 27 (caption) A five-cent double decker.
1907 World's Work Feb. 8559/2 Often the workman's bunk has been a double-decker.
1951 S. Plath Let. 20 Feb. (2017) I. 284 Marcia and I got a double-decker on the second floor.
2021 Philippines Daily Inquirer (Nexis) 13 Mar. The family went to bed..with the boy staying on the top bunk of the double-decker.
9. A glider or other flying machine having wings or other flying surfaces mounted in two layers one above the other; a biplane glider. Now historical.Originally and chiefly with reference to early flying machines designed by German inventor Otto Lilienthal (1848–96) in 1895 and by French-American aviation pioneer Octave Chanute (1832–1910) in 1896.
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1896 Alexandria (Virginia) Gaz. 12 Aug. The machine, which is what is called a ‘double-decker’, upset while it was at a sharp angle.
1917 C. C. Turner Aircraft of To-day viii. 137 Chanute made 700 glides in his ‘double-decker’ without an accident.
1961 O. G. East Wright Brothers Nat. Memorial (Nat. Park Service Hist. Handbk. Ser. 34) 16 The new glider was a double-decker with a span of about 17 feet.
2013 F. Howard Wilbur & Orville iii. 23 The double-decker was a refreshing departure from Lilienthal's bulky bat-wing design.
10. New Zealand. A sheep which has missed a shearing and has over a year's worth of wool. Cf. double-fleecer n.
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1960 L. Masters Back-Country Tales 25 The double deckers, those with two years' wool, ran into bother on account of the weight of the wool.
2008 Manawatu (N.Z.) Standard (Nexis) 25 Nov. 4 A double decker is a sheep that has missed at least one shearing.
Compounds
C1. As a modifier, in the sense ‘having or arranged in two decks, layers, levels, or tiers’.
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1843 Daily National Intelligencer (Washington) 7 Mar. 1/6 (advt.) Double decker corked soled Boots.
1867 Territorial Enterprise (Virginia City, Nevada) 19 July 3/1 A 12-mule double-decker prairie schooner.
1881 Harper's Mag. Jan. 206/1 A good specimen of a ‘double-decker’ engine.
1902 Westm. Gaz. 30 Oct. 3/1 The double-decker costume sketched has each of its flounces bordered with..grey and white squirrel.
1930 Economist 22 Feb. 405/2 The proposal of the Royal Commission for a double-decker rail and road bridge was rendered out of date.
1959 Listener 13 Aug. 263/1 I also take a few sandwiches of the double-decker variety, that is three slices of bread and two fillings.
1995 Harper's Mag. Feb. 56/1 A small barracks crammed with four double-decker metal bunks, rucksacks, [etc.].
2016 Times 2 Dec. 68/1 Aware that rivals were selling double-decker burgers,..Delligatti proposed a similar tiered treat.
C2.
double-decker bus n. a bus having two decks, one above the other; cf. sense 5c.In quot. 1892 denoting a horse-drawn omnibus (cf. bus n.1 1a).
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1892 Fairbury (Nebraska) Gaz. 14 May (caption) Double-decker Bus.
1930 Aberdeen Press & Jrnl. 20 Mar. 7/6 Thirteen people were injured in an alarming double-decker 'bus smash.
2015 Econ. & Polit. Weekly 4 Apr. 79/1 The big, red, double-decker bus trundled along the busy street.
double-decker sandwich n. a sandwich having two layers of filling between three slices of bread, a club sandwich.
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1906 Philadelphia Inquirer 29 Oct. 11/2 (heading) Double decker sandwiches.
1939 Times 6 Nov. 11/1 The double-decker sandwich which has meat on one layer and tomato, lettuce, or cucumber on the other is also good.
2016 Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) 31 Aug. 22/3 The double-decker sandwich was executed with a cold, sad tomato, bland smashed avocado and under-toasted bread.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2022).
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