Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entry.

gibberish.

1695

Congreve Love for Love IV i: They say so of witches’ prayer, and dreams and Dutch almanacks are to be understood by contraries.

a mock auction or sale in which the much-touted ‘reductions’ have no bearing in commercial fact; occas. as v.

1860		Cork Examiner 8 Jan. 4/6: The Mock Dutch Auction. Little Johnny Woburn, Ben Dizzy, the Derby Slogger, and Jack the Quaker, well known touts and ‘bonnets’ [...] sellin’ on the Dutch principle.
1860		R.S. Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 282: Most people are Dutch-auctioned occasionally — put up at their highest and run down to their lowest point.
1872		Daily Tel. 30 Nov. n.p.: [...] the old Dutch auction, by which an article was put up at a high price, and if nobody accepted the offer, then reduced to a lower, the sum first required being gradually reduced until a fair value was attained [F&H].
1885		Punch 21 Feb. 93: Gives up India to Russia, Africa to Germany, puts up garrisoned fortresses and coaling stations at Dutch auction, and lets colonies run loose .
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 26: Dutch Auction, putting up an article at a high price and gradually falling till it is disposed of.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 191: Then he began Dutch auctioneering and at last he let me off with half-a-thick ’un.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 68: DUTCH AUCTION: a cheap-jack auctioneer’s method of selling [...] he does not sell to the highest bidder or any bidder, and starts it at a high price and keeps bidding it down himself till he meets a buyer.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 265: Flanks of Argentine beef [...] were being sold by Dutch auction.
1922		Aberdeen Jrnl 27 June 5/6: Customs and practices in the sale of fish by ‘Dutch auction’ were involved.
1939		Dover Exp. 3 Feb. 18/2: The Chairman asked if the meat was sold by Dutch auction.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 132: Dutch auction. A reverse auction in which goods are offered at progressively lower prices until finally a bidder is found.

1. a one-sided bargain.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 354/2: from ca. 1650.

2. a deal concluded over drinks.

1678		Otway Friendship in Fashion II i: I hate a Dutch bargain that’s made in heat of Wine.
1929		Bath Chron. 9 Mar. 14/5: A ‘Dutch’ bargain is a transaction done by people who are drunk.

(US) a very cursory wash.

1953

‘Miscellany’ in AS XXVIII:2 144: There are several colloquial or slang synonyms of sponge bath. . . Bird bath, Dutch Bath, and wipe-off are baths requiring a minimum of water.

(US gay) a man, irrespective of sexuality, who enjoys the company of lesbians.

1999

Gaymart.com Queer Sl. in the Gay 90s 🌐 Dutch Boy – Men, gay or straight, who like to hang around dykes.

genever, gin.

1861

Roscommon & Leitrim Gaz. 30 Nov. 4/1: Well I'm blest if ever I could ‘diskiver’ what was the fancy of drowning good hot hollands with water [...] afore all that ‘Dutch broth walks Spanish,’ give us another toothful.

a stocky, thickset individual.

1902

H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

fat, ‘broad in the beam’.

1700		N. Ward A Frolic to Horn-Fair 13: A long range of little Cottages, at the doors of which sat abundance of Dutch buttock’d Lasses, with Sea Handkerchiefs about their Pouting Bubbies.
1707		N. Ward London Terraefilius I 14: Pray observe that short Dutch Buttock’d Lady there.

a bald person.

1895		Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough 27 Nov. 4/1: Paderewski [...] is shown as bald as the proverbial Dutch cheese.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

1. a woman [resemblance of a woman’s face to a clockface; see also ety. at Dutch n.⁴ ].

1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 75: How’s your old Dutch clock — your missus, I mean?
1891		Morton & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Poor Thing 🎵 Sal loved her husband firm as a rock, poor thing / He soon got tired of his old Dutch clock, poor thing.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 92: The ole man came in the kitchen jest as me and the Dutch clock was having dan.
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘An Authority on War’ Sporting Times 15 Sept. 1/4: I’ve sometimes gone home ‘tiddley,’ after having faced the foe, / And I’ve faced the old Dutch clock with two bob short! [Ibid.] 3 Mar. 1/4: He’d struck a wrong scent, and had taken the knock; / And he felt, to his nerves ’twas a terrible shock, / The well-known finger-nails of his ancient Dutch clock.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Bedrooms’ Sporting Times 15 Oct. 2/3: I don’t mind a-tellin’ you plain / It ’olds one bit of furniture, my old Dutch clock, / But ’er name isn’t Louie, it’s Jane!

2. the vagina [f. sense 1].

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

a style of comforting in which the speaker intones ‘Thank God it is no worse’.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Dutch Comfort. Thank God it is no worse.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 127: The whole army was now on the retreat, but they had the Dutch comfort of knowin that the storm was in their backs.
1899		Times (Wash., DC) 29 Oct. n.p.: [from London Globe] ‘Dutch comfort’ is understood to be the equivalent of the expression ‘thank my stars it is no worse,’ of which ‘Dutch consolation’ is a variant, implying that, whatever our misfortunes, there is somebody worse off than ourselves.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 12: National rivalries can be traced by the appearance in English of many negative phrases involving Dutch and French, e.g., Dutch comfort, false comfort; Dutch courage, false bravery fueled by alcohol; Dutch uncle, not a real uncle.

any performance in which each musician plays a different tune; thus a general pej. for a bad performance, musical or metaphorical.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1814		W. Scott Waverley Ch. xi n.p.: And now the Demon of Politics envied even the harmony arising from this Dutch concert merely because there was not a wrathful note in the strange compound of sounds which it produced [F&H].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Oct. 1/2: As each one sang in a different key [...] it certainly biore greater resemblance to a drunken Dutch medley than the elaborated performances at the Italian opera.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1871		Daily Tel. 23 March, n.p.: ‘Lord Derby on Pauperism.’ [...] instead of the harmony that should exist [...] you have [...] a Dutch concert, or in other words, every man playing his own tune on his own instrument [F&H].
1873		Sl. Dict. 154: Dutch concert Where every one plays a different tune. Sometimes called a Dutch medley when vocal efforts only are used.
1929		Bath Chron. 9 Mar. 14/5: A ‘Dutch’ concert is a concert where several different tunes are played at the same time.
1934		Aberdeen Jrnl 24 Oct. 6/3: A dutch concert is a babel.

a style of comforting in which the speaker intones ‘Thank God it is no worse’.

1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 35: DUTCH CONSOLATION, ‘Thank God it is no worse.’.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1873		Sl. Dict. 154: Dutch comfort Thank God it is no worse ‘It might have been worse,’ said a man whom the devil was carrying to hell. ‘How?’ asked a neighbour. ‘Well, he’s carrying me ? he might have made me carry him.’.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) [as 1873].
1888		All the Year Round 9 June 542: The expression often heard, ‘Thank Heaven, it is no worse,’ is sometimes called Dutch consolation [F&H].
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 26: Dutch Consolation, ‘thank God it could be worse’.
1899		Times (Wash., DC) 29 Oct. n.p.: [from London Globe] ‘Dutch comfort’ is understood to be the equivalent of the expression ‘thank my stars it is no worse,’ of which ‘Dutch consolation’ is a variant, implying that, whatever our misfortunes, there is somebody worse off than ourselves.
1929		Bath Chron. 9 Mar. 14/5: A ‘Dutch’ consolation means ‘let us be glad that things are not even worse’.

see separate entry.

(US) a badly executed picture.

1883		G.A. Sala in Illus. London News 28th Apr. in Ware (1909) 121/1: The term ‘Dutch Daub’ has fetched me a little. I call to mind that in almost every refreshment buffet and minor hotel bar in the Southern and Western States you come across oil-paintings of still-life.
1979		Maledicta III:2 157: Dutch dabs n [I Hear 1870] Bad landscape paintings and still lifes.

(US) gaol fever.

1830		J.F. Watson Annals of Phila. 600: It often happened that the servants coming from Germany and Holland, after being purchased, communicated a very malignant fever to whole families and neighbourhoods [...]. It was of such frequent occurrence as to be called in the Gazettes the ‘Dutch distemper’ [DA].
1979		Maledicta III:2 157: Dutch distemper n [DA 1830] Jail fever; from the alleged lawlessness of the Dutch.

a grog-shop.

1835		D.P. Thompson Adventures Timothy Peacock 140: Leaving Timothy in a sort of Dutch doggery, or sailor’s hotel [...] Jenks immediately went in search of the friend [DA].
1979		Maledicta III:2 157: Dutch doggery n [DA 1835] A low grog shop; from the alleged surliness of the Dutch.

a woman’s silk scarf.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

a bisexual woman.

1999

Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 11: Dutch door n. A bird who swings both ways.

Hollands gin, genever.

1843–44		Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 393: Tom Pinch, in his guilty agitation, shook a bottle of Dutch Drops until they were nothing but English Froth.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

(gay) the buttocks.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 54: Dutch dumplings n [R] Buttocks; homosexual slang.

a warehouse fire.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

see Dutch uncle n.

any meal where the host gets drunk before his friends.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1888		All the Year Round 9 June 542: Dutch feast is a phrase now obsolete; it was formerly applied to an entertainment where the host got drunk before his guests [F&H].
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 26: Dutch Feast, the host drunk before his guests.
1899		Times (Wash., DC) 29 Oct. n.p.: [from London Globe] A ‘Dutch feast’ [...] signifies a feast at which the host becomes intoxicated.
1929		Bath Chron. 9 Mar. 14/5: A ‘Dutch’ feast is a festical where the host precedes his guests in being tipsy.

(US) a fit of temper, an explosion of rage.

1870		C.G. Leland ‘Steinli von Slang’ in Hans Breitmann in Church 142: Oonder heafens / Der vas nefer soosh derriple witz, / Knockin all dings to sechses und sefens, / Und gifin Plectruda Dutch fits.
1885		Whitchita Dly Eagle (KS) 25 Jan. 4/2: The timid reporter was well night frightened into a dutch fit by being called an ‘ignoramus’.
1898		Stark Co. Democrat (Canton, OH) 11 Aug. 4/3: If an Irishman would move into Vermont they would take a Dutch fit.
1901		St Louis Republican (MO) 29 Jan. 6/3: Ruhlin isd an awful nervous fighter. He nearly has a Dutch fit before a fight.
1909		Spokane Press (WA) 26 May 3/1: If he’ll only listen to me [...] before he flies into a Dutch fit and does anything rash, I can soon make everything right.
1920		Bienville Democrat (Arcadia, LA) 29 July 6/2: Do not [...] have a ‘Dutch fit’ about your tax being wrong for the Sheriff has to collect it as it appears on the roll.
1979		Maledicta III:2 157: Dutch fit n [I Hear 1844] A fit of rage.

(US) an alloy of 11 parts copper and two parts zinc, used as a substitute for gold leaf – and presumably passed off as such to the unwary.

1798		‘St Giles’s Greek’ in Sporting Mag. Dec. XIII 164/1: The diamonds faded into glass, and the gold transmuted into Dutch leaf and lead.
1847		A. Smith Natural History of Ballet Girl 44: The property man is arranging the [...] empty goblets, or vin ordinaire bottles covered with Dutch metal .
1854		T. Buckley Sydenham Greenfinch 38: ‘Dutch metal costs nothing’ [...] ‘Stick on a dollop of bright red and a whole host of shine’ (probably meaning Dutch metal).
1879		Gloucester Citizen 8 Dec. 3/5: [advert] Christmas Decorations — Gold and Silver Leaf, Dutch Metal and Bronzes.
1899		Times (Wash., DC) 29 Oct. n.p.: [from London Globe] ‘Dutch metal’ [...] was largely manufactured at Birmingham [...] the term is employed as a kind of synonym for ‘base metal’.
1979		Maledicta III:2 157: Dutch foil; Dutch gilding; Dutch gold; Dutch metal n An alloy of copper and zinc; a substitute for gold leaf; from the stereotype of Dutch parsimony.

1. the lighting of one cigarette from another, thus saving matches.

c.1943		S .J. Baker Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 8: dutch fuck: The lighting of one cigarette from another.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 354/2: 1940+.
1991		N. Elliott Never Judge a Man by his Umbrella 94: Nevile [...] inquired whether I could tell him why, if you lit your cigarette from somebody else's, it was known as a ‘Dutch fuck’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 659: he lit my second cigarette from his, a sure sign of developing intimacy. That’s why it’s called a Dutch fuck.

2. (US) intercourse between the breasts; also as v.

1997–2002

Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 Dutch or Dutch Fuck To fuck someone between the breasts.

nonsense.

1604

Marlowe Tragical Hist. of Dr. Faustus I iv: wag.: Let thy left eye be diametarily fixed upon my right heel, with quasi vestigiis nostris insistere. robin: God forgive me, he speaks Dutch fustian.

a lesbian.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 54: Dutch girl n [R] Lesbian; homosexual pun relating dike to the dikes of Holland.

any form of drinks.

1654		E. Gayton Pleasant Notes III v 96: He was not able to stirre his jawes, nor could be partaker of any of the good cheer, except it were the liquid part of it, which they call Dutch gleek.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 266: dutch gleek. A jocular expression for drinking, alluding to the game of gleek; as if tippling were the favourite game of Dutchmen.

(Aus.) courage created by alcoholic intake.

1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 78: Any fool can spend half their life in bars getting into drunken blues with a belly full of Dutch guts.
2004		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 3 [as cit. 1993].

see Dutch foil

(US) taking time off without permission, absenting oneself illegally.

1855		Houma Ceres (Terrebonne, LA) 8 Nov. 2/2: Yellow jack [...] in consequence of the appearance of his dire enemy Jack Frost, has been compelled to take Dutch leave.
1895		Scranton Tribune (PA) 28 Dec. 10/1: ‘Am I a deserter, sure enough?’ asked Little Billy [...] ‘You took Dutch leave’.
1898		J.C. Harris Tales of the Home Folks 205: You’ve gone and broke the rules and articles of war [...] You took Dutch leave.
1907		Salt Lake Tribune (UT) 22 Dec. 21/4: [He] had won the position of trusty at Pocatello, and about five days before his sentence expired [...] he took ‘Dutch leave’.
1909		Spanish Fork Press (UT) 4 Nov. 6/5: Three of the pests, evidently of a nomadic turn of mind, took Dutch leave.
1920		N.Y. Tribune 15 Aug. 3/2: The Americans have all taken Dutch leave.
1979		Maledicta III:2 157: Dutch leave n [I Hear 1898] Absent without leave.

see Dutch treat n.

see separate entries.

see Dutch concert

see Dutch foil

(orig. US black) beer.

1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 78: Dutch milk, n. Beer. ‘You can get Dutch milk by express.’.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 54: Dutch milk Beer.

see Dutch courage n.

a frog.

1769		T. Pennant British Zoology III 5: The croaking of Frogs is well known, and from that in fenny countries they are stiled Dutch Nightingales or Boston Waites [OED].
1812		R. Southey Omniana II 33: Izaak Walton accuses the frogs of destroying them, but I cannot persuade myself to find a true bill against these poor persecuted Dutch nightingales.
1829		Chester Chron. 19 June 4/4: The frog, a reptile which has been called facetiously [...] the Dutch nightingale.
1840		W.W. Spurden Supplement to Vocab. of East Anglia (Forby) n.p.: Dutch-Nightingale, a frog, from its melodious note in the spring .
1861		Peter Parley’s Annual 153: He tried to pour forth as plaintive a strain as a nightingale, by trying a tune; but his voice rather resembled that of a Dutch nightingale, that is, a ‘bull marsh-frog’.
1880		Tamworth Herald 11 Sept. 7/4: A facetious correspondent calls the frog the Dutch nightingale.
1934		Aberdeen Jrnl 24 Oct. 6/3: A dutch nightingale is a frog.

1. the mouth.

1903		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:v 297: Dutch oven, n. In expression ‘a mouth as big as a Dutch oven’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 405: Shut his blurry Dutch oven with a firm hand.

2. (also Greek sauna) the smell of a bed in which someone has just broken wind.

1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 25: Dutch Oven Share bed, fart, spit in the air and yell ‘Ghosts.’.
1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: Dutch oven n. The area beneath the bedclothes after ones partner has just played the dawn chorus on his botty bugle. [Ibid.] n.p.: Greek sauna See Dutch oven.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] [I] headed to my room to catch some Zs in the fart sack. I’d just dutch-ovened myself for a third time [etc].

see Dutch row

see Dutch treat n.

blood.

1821		‘Battle’ in Fancy I XVII 407: The combatants now got into a desperate rally, and Josh, receiving the most pepper, till he put in a Gaslighter in the middle of his opponents mug, that not only sent him staggering some yards, but produced the pink gushing out of both of his peepers.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 166: While to another he would say, as a fact not to be disputed [...] ‘That’ll take the bark from your nozzle, and distil the Dutch pink for you, won’t it?’.

(UK und.) the human face.

1895

Mirror of Life 27 July 14/2: The stranger quickly read his broad / With a smile on his Dutch plaice, Then turned to ramper Jones, / who made / A Captain Cook that day .

1. a bill presented as a lump sum, with no details attached.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Dutch-Reckoning, or Alte-mall, a verbal or Lump-account without particulars.
1724-25		Swift Drapier’s Letters in Works II (1859) 22/1: A Dutch reckoning; wherein if you dispute the unreasonableness and exorbitance of the bill, the landlord shall bring it up every time with new additions.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: DUTCH-Reckoning, or Alte-mall a verbal or lump Account, without Particulars; as brought in at Sponging-Houses, at Bawdy-Houses, and other such like Places of ill Repute.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Dutch reckoning, or alte-mal, a verbal, or lump account without particulars, as brought at spunging, or bawdy houses.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1785].
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 13: Dutch reckoning – bad reckoning.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1869		W. Howitt Northern Heights of London 18: Here ’mongst fops, fiddlers, and furbeloes, where everything ’s as dear as freeholders’ votes, and a greater imposition than a Dutch reckoning.
1979		Maledicta III:2 158: Dutch reckoning n False reckoning of position; from alleged ineptness of Dutch sailors which grew out of the trade rivalry between England and Holland.

2. a bill that, if disputed, only gets higher.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 355/1: C.17–20.

(US Und.) a Luger pistol.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

see Dutch act n.

a spurious argument, generating far more sound than any real fury.

1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1919		‘Bartimeus’ ‘Narrative of Commander W.D. Hornby’ in Awfully Big Adventure 101: The Mess was crowded [...] with Subalterns and Lieutenants, smoking and talking nineteen to the dozen. Into that Dutch Parliament strolled Mouldy Jakes.

the act of rubbing one’s knuckles hard across one’s victim’s skull.

[1900		Israel Mag. 3 258: ‘Our faces [were] scrubbed until they shone again.’ ‘Oh! a “Dutch rub,” I used to call it,’ put in Mabel excitedly. ‘Mother used to scrub so hard! Ugh!’].
1913		Mines Mag. 3 237/1: SENSATIONAL hair styles will be instantly wrecked by an egg-shampoo, vegetables a-la-mode, and a good Dutch Rub.
1921		D.J. Howard Stubby Jenks 192: Mebbie you dont kno what the Dry Dutch Rub is [...] well, its when you hold a Kid down and you take yure Nuckels and Rub them Hard and Dig them in his Head, and it hurts Turribel and makes the Kid holler Murder.
1931		(con. 1900) L. Riggs Green Grow the Lilacs I iii: Ort to give you a good Dutch rub and arn some of the craziness out of you!
1938		in DARE.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 69: His mentor was not only a fake but a criminal [...] treating polio with the Dutch rub.
1966		K. Porter ‘Still More Ethnic and Place names as Derisive Adjectives’ Western Folklore XXV:1 38: Dutch rub. Mild torture practised by youthful teenagers, inflicted by applying the knuckles to the back of a smaller boy’s head [...] Central Kansas, 1910–1918.
1979		Maledicta III:2 158: Dutch rub n [DAS 1910] A schoolboy prank of rubbing another’s head with one’s knuckles.
2002		ADS-L 6 Nov. 🌐 Larry’s list calls to mind Dutch rub, analogous to the Indian burn. With the Dutch rub, the knuckles were ground back and forth on the skull of the inferior person.

see Irish toothache under Irish adj.

see Dutch courage n.

see Dutch treat n.

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

a prostitute.

1607

Middleton A Trick to Catch the Old One III iii: dra: Yes, a Dutch widow. hoa: How? dra: That’s an English drab, sir.

a bolster, otherwise defined as a ‘masturbation machine’; in modern use, a blow-up sex doll.

1891		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues II 349: Dutch-wife, a bolster.
1934		Aberdeen Jrnl 24 Oct. 6/3: A dutch wife is a bolster.
1942		J. MacLaren-Ross ‘Y List’ in Memoirs of the Forties (1984) 240: They strapped me bolt upright [...] and put a bolster between my legs like the Dutch wife you read about in books about the east.
1959		A. Burgess Beds in the East (2000) 455: He clutched the bolster [...] known as a Dutch wife .
1965		W. Young Eros Denied 271: We call [...] a masturbation machine a Dutch husband or wife.
1978		(con. 1940s) J.G. Farrell Singapore Grip 262: We can have the ‘Dutch wife’ between us.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Travel 29 Aug. 1: Guests were also provided with a Dutch wife to sleep with – a bed bolster.
2004		‘Miniskirt Doll’ at www.asstr.org 🌐 She had told him that in her country ‘Dutch wife’ meant sex doll.
2010		IOL News (Western Cape) 26 Aug. 🌐 With terms such as [...] ‘Dutch wife’ (prostitute or sex doll) passing into English slang.

of a woman, living with a foreigner.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 597/2: from ca. 1925.

to share expenses, esp. of a meal; thus Dutch adj. by itself.

1912		University Missourian (Columbia, MO) 1 Oct. 4/5: There will be a ‘Dutch’ supper next Saturday evening [...] Freshmen and all new girls are to be guests and ‘old girls’ are to ‘go Dutch’ paying twenty-five cents each.
1917		Eve. Missourian (Columbia, MO) 29 Nov. 4/5: [advert] Treatless Days. Bring that gal to Ellix’s and make her go Dutch.
1920		Eve. World (NY) 11 June 32/1: I want to meet a regular fellow who is willing to let a girl ‘go Dutch’ on the expenses and eliminate the necessity of kissing him goodnight.
1935		M.P. Barker Good Manners for Young Women 19: If you happen to know that a certain man with whom you enjoy going out simply cannot pay for all the dates you would like to have, but could pay his share, why not be frank with each otlier and go ‘dutch’?
1951		S. Lewis World So Wide 62: If you’re one of these independent females that insist on paying their own share, I don’t mind. We can go dutch.
1962		C. Clausen I Love You Honey, But the Season’s Over 112: They were invariably starving artists or starving medical students, who either wanted to ‘go Dutch’ or ended the evening asking us for subway fare.
1966		‘Tom Pendleton’ Iron Orchard (1967) 143: ‘Well,’ she said. ‘If we go dutch.’.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 30: ‘How about lunch tomorrow?’ ‘Oh . . . sure. Dutch?’.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 117: Lizzyboo, I hope, will insist on going Dutch when I take her to the movies.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 132: Go dutch on a calculator boys.
1999		Indep. Rev. 6 Aug. 2: Shall we go Dutch on this one, love?
2000		F. Kellerman Stalker (2001) 109: ‘Want to go Dutch?’ He laughed. ‘This one’s on me. The next one’s on you.’.
2013		Cape News Online (SA) 12 Aug. 🌐 Men just wanna go Dutch. New York: Two out of three men think women should help pay for a date.
2022		Twitter 5 Mar. 🌐 Just found out the person I’ve been seeing earns 6 figures and I’ve been going dutch on everything ??