Dutch uncle

American  

noun

Sometimes Offensive.

1. a person who criticizes or reproves with unsparing severity and frankness.

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Dutch uncle British  

noun

1. informal a person who criticizes or reproves frankly and severely

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Dutch uncle Idioms  

1. A stern, candid critic or adviser, as in When I got in trouble with the teacher again, the principal talked to me like a Dutch uncle. This expression, often put as talk to one like a Dutch uncle, presumably alludes to the sternness and sobriety attributed to the Dutch. [Early 1800s]

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Sensitive Note

Because Dutch is used here to describe someone manifesting the opposite of warm, affectionate, typically avuncular behavior, this term is sometimes perceived as insulting to or by the Dutch. See also Dutch.

Etymology

Origin of Dutch uncle

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

Last week the highly respected Henry Kaufman, a partner in Salomon Bros, who often serves as Wall Street's Dutch uncle, called for the declaration of a "national economic emergency."

From Time Magazine Archive

Air Force playing the role of a straitlaced, old-fashioned Dutch uncle.

From Time Magazine Archive

Discussing the woes of anthropology in Philadelphia last week, he talked to his colleagues like a Dutch uncle.

From Time Magazine Archive

Having a Dutch uncle has won Peapod its first operating profit since the high-tech home-delivery service was founded in 1989.

From Time Magazine Archive

"It ought to have been," he confided, "but I got mad and talked like a Dutch uncle, and Barzil went off on a holy tack."

From Java Head by Hergesheimer, Joseph