English · Idiom Candidate

on the double

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

to do something quickly or immediately

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Làm việc gì đó một cách nhanh chóng hoặc ngay lập tức

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: on two legs, implying rapid movement

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

Another time they put a railroadman's cap on his head and a red scarf around his neck and ordered him to push a wheelbarrow on the double.

Run around the field for an hour, boy.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Equivalents & related

Near equivalent ba chân bốn cẳng (adverb) at full tilt; at maximum speed; in a flash; on the double; like a bat out of hell Tiếng Việt Near equivalent at full tilt With maximum energy or effort English · via ba chân bốn cẳng

Lighter cards are two steps away in the meaning graph — equivalents of equivalents, reached via the entry shown on the card.

Common questions

What does “on the double” mean?

to do something quickly or immediately Literally: on two legs, implying rapid movement

Is “on the double” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

What is the closest equivalent?

“ba chân bốn cẳng” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.