Dutch uncle
Dutch uncle noun: one who reproves or advises in a blunt, stern but often kindly manner, intended for the benefit of the recipient.
Noun
Dutch uncle (plural Dutch uncles)
- One who reproves or advises in a blunt, stern but often kindly manner, intended for the benefit of the recipient.
- Gruff but kindly, with dark-rimmed glasses prone to slip down his prominent ruddy nose and an unlit cigar habitually clenched in his teeth, he was everyone's Dutch uncle and let even strangers call him “Maggie” to his face.1996, Richard Kluger, Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris, Random House (Alfred A. Knopf), page 287
- I talked like a Dutch uncle to convince them they would be in the way if they came out too.2003, Harlan Wygant, The Samurai Conspiracy, iUniverse, page 59
Forms of Dutch uncle
| plural | Dutch uncles |
|---|
Origin of Dutch uncle
From 1838.
Questions about Dutch uncle
- What does Dutch uncle mean?
- Dutch uncle means one who reproves or advises in a blunt, stern but often kindly manner, intended for the benefit of the recipient.
- What part of speech is Dutch uncle?
- Dutch uncle is a noun.
- What is the plural of Dutch uncle?
- The plural of Dutch uncle is Dutch uncles.
Words near Dutch uncle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Dutch uncle (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “Dutch uncle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dutch_uncle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.