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Dutch courage

noun

Etymology

This dates back to a time of intense political rivalry between England and the Netherlands, and was originally an ethnic slur.

Definitions

  1. The courage or bravado induced by alcohol.

    • I was beginning to wish I'd had the sense to spend the last hour in a pub. Dutch courage would have been better than no courage at all.

  2. An alcoholic drink, taken to bolster one's courage.

    • Another five minutes wait and we finally raise glasses in a toast to the evening. ‘So, what's the plan?’ ‘Well, we can go straight to the casino after this or we can get half a skinful of Dutch courage.’

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for Dutch courage. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA