Dutch courage

Save This Word!

See synonyms for Dutch courage on Thesaurus.com

noun Sometimes Offensive.

courage inspired by drunkenness or drinking liquor.

QUIZ

QUIZ YOURSELF ON "IS" VS. "ARE"

"Is" it time for a new quiz? "Are" you ready? Then prove your excellent skills on using "is" vs. "are."

Question 1 of 7

IS and ARE are both forms of which verb?

have

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of Dutch courage

First recorded in 1805–15

usage note for Dutch courage

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. See also Dutch.

Words nearby Dutch courage

Dutch cap, Dutch chair, Dutch cheese, Dutch clover, Dutch Colonial, Dutch courage, Dutch cupboard, Dutch disease, Dutch doll, Dutch door, Dutch East Indies

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use Dutch courage in a sentence

My wife was talking to her on the phone, and I just kinda found the courage to ask her.
Deer Tick's John McCauley on Ten Years in Rock and Roll|James Joiner|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The courage of this husband and father is a constant reminder of how much some sacrifice for exercising universal rights.
Behind Bars for the Holidays: 11 Political Prisoners We Want to See Free In 2015|Movements.Org|December 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Between June and October 1943, 4,283 British, 1,303 Dutch, 1,630 Australian, and 88 American soldiers died.
Riding Thailand’s WWII Death Railway|Liza Foreman|December 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The highest form of political courage is doing the right thing when the mob is against it.
Rubio’s Embargo Anger Plays to the Past|Michael Tomasky|December 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Absolutely: “Courage I would rank now in the hierarchy of art and love.”
Mailer’s Letters Pack a Punch and a Surprising Degree of Sweetness|Ronald K. Fried|December 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Mrs. Woodbury paints in oils and water-colors; the latter are genre scenes, and among them are several Dutch subjects.
Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.|Clara Erskine Clement
It is only just to say, that the officers exhibited a degree of courage far beyond any thing we had expected from them.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
To be wiser than other men is to be honester than they; and strength of mind is only courage to see and speak the truth.
Pearls of Thought|Maturin M. Ballou
She did her work at a most interesting period in Dutch painting.
Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.|Clara Erskine Clement
The look of distress had vanished, and his sincere eyes seemed to shine again with courage and with strength.
Bella Donna|Robert Hichens

British Dictionary definitions for Dutch courage

Dutch courage

noun

false courage gained from drinking alcohol

alcoholic drink

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with Dutch courage

Dutch courage

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.”