0 Something that is double-edged acts in two ways, often with one negative and one positive effect: --
1 having two possible and different meanings or effects: --
Wealth and fame can be a double-edged sword (= a situation with both positive and negative effects).
Climate changes are potentially double-edged in their consequences.
As a very different discourse and method for regulating employment to collective bargaining, the law provided a double-edged challenge to trade unions.
So, the government introduced a double-edged policy that came to be known as villagisation.
It is particularly noteworthy that this new paradigm was double-edged in a very subtle way.
The millowners saw only too clearly that the consequences of state intervention could be double-edged, and sometimes viewed the prospect with apprehension.
One reason is the double-edged character of directpayments.
In the modern idiom this value might be referred to in a slightly double-edged way as greatness as opposed to goodness.
The aversion of new course economics to all sorts of abstract theorising was double-edged.
Like other aspects of women's involvement in political life, their participation in highly politicized social events elicited a double-edged response.
