▪ I. dutch, n.2 slang.
[Abbrev. of duchess.]
A costermonger's wife; gen. a wife; often old Dutch.
| a 1889 Mitchell Jimmy Johnson's Holiday (Barrère & Leland), He made a vow he'd never row With his old Dutch again. 1889 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang I. 341/2 Dutch (popular), a wife. 1893 A. Chevalier My Old Dutch, There ain't a lady livin' in the land As I'd ‘swop’ for my dear old Dutch! 1901 R. C. Lehmann Anni Fugaces 128, I detected a coster..with some one to act as his Dutch. 1926 Calgary Daily Herald 7 June, Joe Brown, Sal Gratton, and the rest of the quaint coster characters of ‘My Old Dutch’ come to life and live over their romantic story at the Strand theatre. |
▪ II. dutch, v.
[f. Dutch a.]
trans. To clarify and harden (quills) by plunging them in heated sand or rapidly passing them through a fire.
| 1763 Lond. Chron. 3–6 Sept. 231/1 Advt., The whole art of Dutching, Clarifying, and Making of Quills perfectly clear and hard. 1768 Woman of Honor III. 215 Hardened like a quill, by being Dutched. 1837 Whittock, etc. Compl. Bk. Trades (1842) 373 We imported vast quantities of quills from Hamburgh, Rotterdam, etc., and these were clarified or Dutched. |