Dutch reckoning

noun

A (falsified) bill that is not itemised, and that is unjustifiably high.

Meanings

nounDutch reckoning (uncountable)
  1. archaicidiomaticuncommonuncountableA (falsified) bill that is not itemised, and that is unjustifiably high.

    'That's better!' he said, still smiling, but very much more pleasantly. 'Rig Jane out in the first style of elegance, and send me a Dutch reckoning: I don't want to know the particulars.'

    2009, Georgette Heyer, Frederica, page 75
    2 more examples

    As if all Light of Reasoning were so shut up in Clavius his Brain, that because he does not see, the rest of Mankind must be blind; and what is that way of Reasoning that he betakes himself to, but by huddling the Principles of Geometry into Confusion, without order of method of Reasoning, to make a Conclusion, like a Dutch Reckoning of Allem-al?

    1712, Roger Coke, A Detection Of The Court and State Of England During The Four Last Reigns, page 22

    "You knows we never took Mike's duds till you couldn't pay his charges any longer; and since we comes to that, there's two weeks of three shillings and sixpence due for your lodging in the Star-Chamber, for yourself and Master Lionel Falconer, which I supposes you means to pay with a Dutch reckoning: you sees I can speak some names right enough,—d'ye take me,—hey?" and with an ill-natured leer he left the hall.

    1828, Death on Board-Wages, published in Tales of an Antiquary (volume 2 of 3) by Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street, London
  2. uncountablenauticalA false or incorrect reckoning of position.
  3. uncountableUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see Dutch, reckoning.

    1 March 1625 in the Dutch reckoning was, in the English reckoning of the time, 19 February 1624.

Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

Source: Dutch reckoning on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.