Dutch

My list of English expressions featuring the Dutch. I collected this list from various dictionaries. Does the fact that most of these expressions are unfavourable say something about the English or about the Dutch? :-)

Note that some expressions or meanings are only understood in the UK, and some only in the US. Also note that some expressions may be even more localised than that.

If you know of more expression, please send them to me. If you can provide a reference to your source, so much the better.

Dutch act

Suicide.

Dutch angle

A cinematic tactic often used to portray the psychological uneasiness or tension in the subject being filmed. A Dutch angle is achieved by tilting the camera off to the side so that the shot is composed with the horizon at an angle to the bottom of the frame. Many Dutch angles are static shots at an obscure angle, but in a moving Dutch angle shot the camera can pivot, pan or track along the director/cinematographer's established diagonal axis for the shot. (From Wikipedia.)

Dutch auction

An auction in which the auctioneer offers the goods at gradually decreasing prices, the first bidder to accept becoming the purchaser; to reverse the process of a normal auction.

Dutch bargain or wet bargain

A bargain settled over drinks, the Dutch being formerly reputed to be steady drinkers.

Dutch barn

A farm building with a curved roof on a frame that has no walls.

Dutch bulb

The term used to describe collectively certain kinds of garden bulbs, supplies of which largely are imported from Holland, which are planted in the fall for spring bloom. Included in the Dutch Bulbs description are such items as Tulips, Hyacinths, Daffodils, Crocuses, among others.

Dutch clover

White clover, a valuable pasture plant.

Dutch collar

A horse collar.

Dutch Colonial

Characterised by a gambrel roof with overhanging eaves.

Dutch comfort

Cold comfort, i.e. things might have been worse.

Dutch concert

A great noise and uproar, like that made by a party of drunken Dutchmen, some singing, others quarrelling, speechifying, etc.

Dutch courage

The courage exerted by drink; pot valour. The Dutch were considered heavy drinkers.

Dutch cousins

Close friends, a play upon cousins german.

Dutch defence

A sham defence.

Dutch door

A door divided horizontally so that the lower or upper part can be shut separately.

Dutch elm disease

A disease of elms caused by an ascomycetous fungus (Ceratocystis ulmi) and characterised by yellowing of the foliage, defoliation, and death.

Dutch generosity

Stinginess.

Dutch gleek

Tippling. Gleek is a game and the name implies that the game loved by Dutchmen is drinking.

Dutch headache

Hangover.

Dutch hoe

A scuffle hoe, a garden hoe that has both edges sharpened and can be pushed forward or drawn back.

Dutch leaf

False gold leaf.

Dutch gold, Dutch metal

"German" gold, an alloy of copper and zinc, yellow in colour, which is easily tarnished unless lacquered. Imitation gold leaf is made from it, hence the name Dutch leaf. It is also called Dutch metal.

Dutch mineral

Copper beaten out into very thin leaves.

Dutch nightingales

Frogs.

Dutch oven

1. A heavy iron cooking pot with close fitting lid.

2. A tin hanging screen for cooking before a kitchen range or ordinary fire grate.

3. A brick oven in which the walls are preheated for cooking.

4. A prank where one farts under a blanket while holding a victim there.

Dutch roll

A combination of directional and lateral oscillation of an aeroplane.

Dutch rub

To rub your knuckles across the top of someones head whilst holding their head under your other arm.

Dutch talent

That which is not done in true nautical and shipshape fashion, more the result of brawn than brain.

Dutch treat

A meal, amusement, etc., at which each person pays for himself (i.e. not a treat at all). To go Dutch has the same meaning.

Dutch widow

A prostitute.

Dutch wife

An open frame constructed of cane, originally used in the Dutch East Indies and other hot countries to rest the limbs in bed; also a bolster used for the same purpose. Called thus because it was round, fat and just lay there.
In at least Japan, but probably also elsewhere, a sex doll.

Dutched

Cancelled.

Dutchman's breeches

1. Two patches of blue appearing in a stormy sky giving the promise of better weather, i.e. enough blue sky to make a Dutchman (or sailor) a pair of breeches.

2. A variety of Dicentra (D. cucullaria) a common plant native to North American woods that blooms in the spring. The flowers of the plant resemble the pants or breeches worn by Dutch boys many years ago. D. spectabilis is the plant commonly known as the Bleeding Heart, a very popular spring blooming garden variety.

Dutchman's draught

A "big swig", a copious draught; one of the many allusions to the Dutchman's reputed fondness for heavy drinking.

Dutchman's log

A rough method for finding a ship's speed by throwing a piece of wood, etc., into the sea well forward and timing its passage between two marks on the vessel of known distance apart.

Dutchman's pipe

A hardy climbing plant (Aristolochia sipho) that grows wild in the southern United States. The plant has large, heart-shaped leaves and rather small, brownish-yellow pipe-shaped flowers.

Double Dutch

1. Gibberish or jargon, as of infants or of a foreign tongue not understood by the hearer.

2. The jumping of two jump ropes rotating in opposite directions simultaneously.

Flying Dutchman

A ghost ship. A sailor who sees a Flying Dutchman will die before reaching home.

To go Dutch

See Dutch treat.

His Dutch is up

His dander is riz.

I'm a Dutchman if I do

A strong refusal.

If not, I'm a Dutchman

Used to strengthen an affirmation or assertion.

In Dutch

In trouble, out of favour, under suspicion.

The Dutch have taken Holland

A quiz when anyone tells what is well known as a piece of good news.

To talk like a Dutch uncle

To reprove firmly but kindly. The Dutch were noted for their discipline.

Well, I'm a Dutchman!

An exclamation of strong incredulity.

Pennsylvania Dutch

Not Dutch at all, but rather Deutsch, i.e. German, descendants (both the language and the people) of German settlers in Pennsylvania

Dutch disease

The deindustrialis-ation of a nation's economy that occurs when the discovery of a natural resource raises the value of that nation's currency, making manufactured goods less competitive with other nations, increasing imports and decreasing exports. The term originated in Holland after the discovery of North Sea gas. See http://www.investorwords.com/1604/dutch_disease.html.