Noun
double-edged sword (plural double-edged swords)
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see double-edged, sword.
(figuratively) A benefit that is also a liability, or (a benefit) that carries some significant but not-so-obvious cost or risk.
(figuratively) A neutral principle that has applications that may be either positive (beneficial) or negative (adverse) to one's own interests.
The unintended ambiguity of the phrase was a double-edged sword: it spurred litigation but it also ended up shielding good-faith actors.
Social media is a double-edged sword. I've gotten in trouble for announcing, too soon, something that the network or the studio wanted to do, and it steals some of the thunder, so to speak. Charisma Carpenter
Science, as illustrated by the printing press, the telegraph, the railway, is a double-edged sword. At the same moment that it puts an enormous power in the hands of the good man, it also offers an equal advantage to the evil disposed. Richard Jefferies
Size is a double-edged sword with great advantages and disadvantages.. Kenneth Griffin
Gratefulness is a double-edged sword. Because I think we've poured it into a feeling. And the batter of gratitude gets kind of stuck to the edges of the Williams Sonoma melamine mixing bowl. But gratefulness, the act of being grateful is actually... a verb. It's an activity. Abigail Spencer
Shows can come and go. They can be a hit and then in three years, gone. There's some comfort in having the stability of a job and having children. It's a double-edged sword. Calista Flockhart
I am somebody who has always struggled with uncertainty. And, of course, uncertainty is so core to life. I seek out knowledge to help me deal with that. But I'm also aware that knowledge can be really a double-edged sword. Chloe Benjamin