Word.ws English Dictionary

Dutch courage

Dutch courage noun: the courage or bravado induced by alcohol.

Noun

Dutch courage (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) 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.2010, Minette Walters, The Shape of Snakes, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN
  2. (idiomatic) 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.’2015, R.A. Barnes, Peril: A Ger Mayes Crime Novel, Marble City Publishing, →ISBN

Synonyms of Dutch courage

Origin of Dutch courage

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

Questions about Dutch courage

What does Dutch courage mean?
Dutch courage means the courage or bravado induced by alcohol.
What part of speech is Dutch courage?
Dutch courage is a noun.

Words near Dutch courage in the dictionary

  1. Dutch concert
  2. Dutch concerts
  3. Dutch consolation
  4. Dutch corner
  5. Dutch corners
  6. Dutch courage
  7. Dutch crunch
  8. Dutch curse
  9. dutch date
  10. dutch dates
  11. Dutch disease

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Dutch courage (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-Dutch courage.ogg.

Cite this entry: “Dutch courage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dutch_courage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.