double-team

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double-team (third-person singular simple present double-teams, present participle double-teaming, simple past and past participle double-teamed)

1. (transitive, sports) In sports involving offensive and defensive teams, to use two defensive players to guard against the movements of a single offensive player.
   • 1949 January 24, “Stop St. Louis!”, in Time:

     On any given night, Pivotman Macauley was good for at least 18 points a game. But because L.I.U. double-teamed him (he had two men guarding him), he didn't bother to shoot much.

2. (transitive, by extension) To deal with or handle a task or individual person by using a team of two people.
   • 2008 January 21, Kathy Kiely, “Clinton, Obama step up attacks at South Carolina debate”, in USA Today, retrieved 6 Jan. 2009:

     Obama . . . accused the Clintons of double-teaming him on the campaign trail. "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," he said.

3. (slang, transitive, of two people) To double penetrate someone.
   • 2015, Double Lucky. Jackie Collins. 2015.

     He and M.J. had double-teamed her—with her consent—on a drunken prom night.

4. (slang, transitive) To gang up on someone.
   • 2012, Eleanor Choukas Anderson, Out of Her Shadow‎, page 557:

     one day they double- teamed her into a closet and threatened to lock her in if she didn't show them her privates.

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