double dog dare ya. Simply to double down, up the ante in response to a dare.  Or to mock, to deceive, literally “dog-dog,” hence double-dog.

Michael Quinion found a citation in Chapman’s Dictionary of American Slang dating this turn of phrase to the 1940’s. “Mr Chamberlain also mentions several other forms. As well as the immemorial I dare you, he gives I dog dare you, I double dog dare you, I black dog dare you, and the ultimate challenge that must surely have been impossible to pass up without appearing totally chicken: I double black dog dare you.”

The use of the double dog dare is wonderfully vivid in the film A Christmas Story, based on radio pioneer Jean Shepard’s memoirs.  Here the boys up the ante to a triple-dog-dare. Click the sound icon to listen if you are interested.

We still use this phrase.  Dr. Ame Wilson of Ohio University , a dramaturgist, commented on her belly-button piercing: “My students double-dog dared me.” So of course she did it.