Dutch courage

American  

noun

Sometimes Offensive.

1. courage inspired by drunkenness or drinking liquor.

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Dutch courage British  

noun

1. false courage gained from drinking alcohol

2. alcoholic drink

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Dutch courage Idioms  

1. 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.”

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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. See also Dutch.

Etymology

Origin of Dutch courage

First recorded in 1805–15

Example Sentences

Dutch courage … John le Carré's Toby Bell takes to a cafe to prepare himself to steal an illicit recording back from his employer.

From The Guardian • Apr. 12, 2013

I don't believe in Dutch courage in any case, Bathurst; certainly not in yours.

From Rujub, the Juggler by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)

His Royal Highness was on foot, and was seen standing facing the enemy, with outstretched legs, like a Colossus of Rhodes, impassive and stolid,—the very impersonification of Dutch courage and aggressiveness.

From History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present Moral and Physical Reasons for its Performance by Remondino, Peter Charles

Then she was forced to emerge—and no tottering criminal, about to face the scaffold, has ever had more need of Dutch courage than Laura in this moment.

From The Getting of Wisdom by Richardson, Henry Handel

The effect was marvelous, and enabled me clearly to understand the meaning of the familiar term "Dutch courage," so that I watched from afar the fight to the end without a return of funk.

From The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume II by Stillman, William James

Related Words

• drunkenness
• liquid courage