Dutch treat

American  

noun

Sometimes Offensive.

1. a meal or entertainment for which each person pays their own expenses.

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Dutch treat British  

noun

1. informal an entertainment, meal, etc, where each person pays for himself

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Dutch treat Cultural  

1. An outing or date on which each person pays his or her own way. To “go Dutch” is to go on such a date.

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Dutch treat Idioms  

1. An outing or date in which each person pays his or her own expenses. For example, Her parents agreed that she might date if it were a Dutch treat. The related expression go Dutch means “to go on a date with each person paying their own way,” as in Students often elect to go Dutch. The first term dates from about 1870, and the variant from the early 1900s.

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Sensitive Note

A Dutch treat is not a treat at all. Because Dutch is used here to negate the concept of a generous treat, the term is sometimes perceived as insulting. See also Dutch.

Etymology

Origin of Dutch treat

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

But, Rose cautioned, these new varieties were not the same as the original Dutch treat.

From Washington Post • Sep. 20, 2018

By the time the royal couple had vanished into the remodeled White House�they were its first overnight guests�the capital was thinking of the visit as a new sort of Dutch treat.

From Time Magazine Archive

Our faces are our own, thank you just the same, and this is a Dutch treat.

From Winnie Childs The Shop Girl by Williamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)

Forget it!" he said warmly; "this isn't a Dutch treat.

From The Next of Kin Those who Wait and Wonder by McClung, Nellie L.