Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. bad temper, irascibility [stereotyping].

1893		C.G. Leland Memoirs 320: It woke Colonel John Forney up to the very highest pitch of his fighting ‘Injun,’ or, as they say in Pennsylvania, his ‘Dutch’ [DA].
1899		H. Hamblen Bucko Mate 24: My Pennsylvania Dutch was up, and [...] I felt myself imbued with the spirit of the fierce old pirates.
1912		G.R. Chester Five Thousand an Hour Ch. xiv: Lofty tried to buy him and Schnitt tried to force him. Then he got his Dutch up.
1914		Day Book (Chicago) 17 Dec. 17/1: She was an Irish girl who talked Turkey, drank Scotch, got her Dutch up and took French leave.
1945		L.R. Tryon Poor Man’s Doctor 32: Hilda would have stopped me from doing anything rash, but my ‘Dutch was up,’ as our Pennsylvania neighbors used to say [DA].
1979		Maledicta III:2 157: Dutch; dutch n [...] 2: Temper or dander; from the popular stereotype of Dutch irascibility 3: Crewcut haircut.

2. a crewcut haircut [confusion between Dutch and Deutsch, German].

1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1979		see sense 1.