double whammy
Plural
double whammies
1
a situation in which one gets affected by two unpleasant or unfortunate events that happen at once
The idiom "double whammy" is believed to have originated in the United States in the early 20th century and is used to describe a situation where two negative events happen at the same time, compounding the negative impact. The term "whammy" is slang for a curse or jinx, and the "double whammy" is a situation where two curses or negative events occur simultaneously, making the situation even worse.
- He is facing a double whammy of health problems and financial difficulties.
- If we don't prepare for the upcoming storm, we could face a double whammy of power outages and flooding.
- She experienced a double whammy of losing her job and getting into a car accident.
- The team faced a double whammy of injuries and bad weather during the championship game.
- They have been hit with a double whammy of a natural disaster and an economic recession.