dutch date

noun

An occasion, particularly a romantic outing, where the participants split the cost.

Meanings

dutch date1

noundutch date (plural dutch dates)

plural dutch dates

  1. Alternative letter-case form of Dutch date.

Dutch date2

nounDutch date (plural Dutch dates)

plural Dutch dates · alternative dutch date

  1. An occasion, particularly a romantic outing, where the participants split the cost.

    If we started a campaign for "dutch dates" and succeeded in putting it over, it would become the accustomed thing to do […]

    1927 December 8, M. J. Kerner, “Grins and Growls to the Editor”, in James F. Wickizer, editor, California Daily Bruin, volume V, number 55, Los Angeles, page 4
    3 more examples

    Two recent examples of the so-called originality and unconventionality of youth are notorious, namely, “jazz music” and “dutch dates.” And neither of these is due directly to youth. They merely are evils consequent upon the originality of parents.

    1931, The New Mexico Quarterly, page 195

    Each year the clubs take a one day trip to some place of interest […] On [the second year] the girls furnished good lunch, feeding nearly 60 hungry young people for a cost of $10.00 beside what they brought from home. Last summer we went on a Dutch date to the Henry Ford Museum […]

    1940 April, Jewel Pittman, “Club Takes Tours”, in G. L. Noble, L. E. Troeger, editors, National 4-H Club News, volume XVIII, number 4, Chicago: The National Committee on Boys and Girls Club Work, page 4

    Even those boys and girls who would accept a dutch date now and then were not willing to make the arrangment public. […] If dutch dating was absolutely necessary, the girl should give the money to her date ahead of time so it would at least look as if he were paying her way.

    1988, Beth L. Bailey, “The Worth of a Date”, in From Front Porch to Back Seat, paperback edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, published 1989, →ISBN, page 59

Origin

From Dutch (“substitute, inferior, ersatz”) + date, ostensibly modeled on Dutch treat.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

dutch date. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dutch%20date

MLA

“dutch date.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dutch%20date. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dutch date,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dutch%20date.

Source: dutch date on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.