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View synonyms for Dutch courage
Dutch courage
noun
, Sometimes Offensive.
- courage inspired by drunkenness or drinking liquor.
Dutch courage
noun
- false courage gained from drinking alcohol
- alcoholic drink
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Sensitive Note
Dutch courage is foolish courage or misplaced confidence. Because “Dutch” is used to imply that the courage is not genuine, the term is sometimes perceived as insulting to or by the Dutch. Dutch.
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Word History and Origins
Origin of Dutch courage1
First recorded in 1805–15
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Idioms and Phrases
False courage acquired by drinking liquor, as in He had a quick drink to give him Dutch courage . This idiom alludes to the reputed heavy drinking of the Dutch, and was first referred to in Edmund Waller's Instructions to a Painter (1665): “The Dutch their wine, and all their brandy lose, Disarm'd of that from which their courage grows.”Advertisement
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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