double whammy
noun phrase

- a situation where two unpleasant things happen at almost the same time

Cambridge Dictionary

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ORIGIN

A whammy is supposedly a magical spell or power that causes someone to have a difficult or unpleasant time (He put the whammy on me).

When “whammy” showed up in the late 1930s, it meant an evil spell or bad luck in sports slang. The term “double whammy,” a more powerful spell or misfortune, appeared in the early 1940s, followed by even more powerful whammies that were tripled and quadrupled.

Al Capp’s use of “whammy” in his Li’l Abner comic strip helped popularize the usage. In 1951, he used both “whammy” and “double whammy” in the speech (or, rather, the speech balloons) of the hillbilly Evil-Eye Fleegle:

“Evil-Eye Fleegle is th’ name, an’ th’ ‘whammy’ is my game. Mudder Nature endowed me wit’ eyes which can putrefy citizens t’ th’ spot! … There is th’ ‘single whammy’! That, friend, is th’ full, pure power o’ one o’ my evil eyes! It’s dynamite, friend, an’ I do not t’row it around lightly! … And, lastly—th’ ‘double whammy’—namely, th’ full power o’ both eyes—which I hopes I never hafta use.”

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ORIGIN for whammy

bane, curse, hex, hostile stare, ill wishes, jinx, silent curse, adversity, hard time, hard cheese, hard luck, misfortune, setback, tragedy, bad break, blow, devil's own luck, ill luck, rotten luck, tough luck, mischance, raw deal, tough break, double-trouble

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Practice OWAD in a conversation:

"Farmers in the US have had to face the DOUBLE WHAMMY of a rising dollar and falling agricultural prices."