double life
Noun
Meaning
An existence or life that has two aspects, particularly when one of them is regarded as embarrassing, immoral, or unlawful and thus kept hidden from a person's family, friends, and work colleagues.
Superman lives a double life as a superhero and as the reporter Clark Kent.
The hidden, or more unusual, aspect of a person's life.
She was devastated to find out her husband had been living a double life as a cross-dresser.
Synonyms
Examples
Working mothers' laughter comes hardest when our double life is revealed for what it is: a juggling act in which the balls can drop at any time, invariably on our own head.
What is scandal? Scandal is saying one thing and doing another; it is a double life, a double life.
When I'm writing a novel, I'm dealing with a double life. I live in the present at the same time that I live in the past with my characters. It is this that makes a novelist so eccentric and unpleasant.
My parents led this double life. They were in the underground movement to bring down the Nazis. My father was hanged for being a traitor.
Well, I live a double life. Tonight, I'll escort you to dinner. Then I have to rush home and finish my calculus homework.' 'You're not joking, are you?' 'I never joke about calculus homework.
The Double Life of Liliane is a triumph of autobiographical metafiction, with photos, genealogical digressions and historical allusions as background to a young woman's complex path toward maturity.