Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 2.pdf/356

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newspaper tells, Our cargoes of meat, drink, and cloaths beat the dutch; Now who would not tarry and take t'other touch?

To talk Dutch, Double-Dutch, or High-Dutch, verb. phr. (common).—To talk gibberish; by implication, nonsense.

1604. Marlowe, Faustus, Sc. iv. Wag. Villain—call me Master Wagner, and let thy left eye be diametarily fixed upon my right heel, with quasi vestigiis uostris insistere. Clown. God forgive me, he speaks dutch fustian.

1790. Dibdin, The Sweet Little Cherub. And, my timbers! what lingo he'd coil and belay, Why 'twas just all as one as high dutch.

1876. C. H. Wall, trans. Molière, vol. I., p. 116. He never taught me anything but my prayers, and though I have said them daily now these fifty years, they are still double dutch to me.

The Dutch have taken Holland, phr. (common).—A quiz for stale news. Cf., Queen Bess (or Queen Anne) is dead; the ark rested on mount Ararat, etc.

Dutch-Auction or Sale, subs. (cheap-jacks').—A sale at minimum prices; a mock-auction.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 30 Nov. So thoroughly corrupt and vicious has the existing system become that it would be well-nigh a relief to fall back on the old dutch auction, by which an article was put up at a high price, and, if nobody accepted the offer, then reduced to a lower, the sum first required being gradually decreased until a fair value was attained.

1885. Punch, 21 Feb., p. 93. Gives up India to Russia, Africa to Germany, puts up garrisoned fortresses and coaling stations at dutch auction, and lets colonies run loose.

Dutch-Bargain, subs. (old).—A bargain all on one side.

'In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch, Is giving too little and asking too much!'

Dutch-Clock, subs. (music-hall).—1. A wife. Cf., Dutch and sense 2.

2. (common).—A bed-pan.

Dutch-Concert or Medley, subs. (common).—A sing-song whereat everybody sings and plays at the same time as everybody else; a hubbub.

1814. Scott, Waverley, ch. xi. And now the Demon of Politics envied even the harmony arising from this dutch concert, merely because there was not a wrathful note in the strange compound of sounds which it produced.

1871. Daily Telegraph, 23 Mar. 'Lord Derby on Pauperism.' It happens that instead of the harmony which should exist where good men and good women are, working together for a common object, you have something like what is popularly known as a dutch concert, or in other words, every man playing his own tune on his own instrument.

Dutch Consolation, subs. (common).—Job's comfort; unconsoling consolation.

1888. All the Year Round, 9 June, p. 542. The expression often heard, 'Thank Heaven, it is no worse,' is sometimes called dutch consolation.

Dutch-Courage, subs. Pot-*valiancy. Cf., Fielding's Dutch-defence = sham-defence.

1872. Spencer, Study of Sociology, ch. viii., p. 185 (9th ed.). A dose of brandy, by stimulating the circulation, produces dutch courage, as it is called.

1887. Mrs. Lovett Cameron, Neck or Nothing, ch. iv., p. 50. Bob waited half a second for an answer, glancing uneasily at his friend's face, and then he dashed on again with a sort of dutch courage, for, to tell the truth he wasn't quite sure how Jack would take it.

Dutch-Feast, subs. (old).—See quot.

1888. All the Year Round, 9 June, p. 542. Dutch feast is a phrase now obsolete; it was formerly applied to an entertainment where the host got drunk before his guests.