Dutch treat
A situation in which two people agree to split the cost of something or pay for their own share, usually a meal. Since Bob and Sue were just friends, neither ever objected to a Dutch treat when they went out to dinner. Here's the bill. I think a Dutch treat is only fair, yeah? I expected our dinner to be a Dutch treat, but then he paid for my meal. Was I actually on a date?
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
Dutch treat
a social occasion where one pays for oneself. (Viewed by some as insulting to the Dutch.) "It's nice of you to ask me out to dinner," she said, "but could we make it a Dutch treat?" The office outing is always a Dutch treat.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Dutch treat
An outing or date in which each person pays his or her own expenses. For example, Her parents agreed that she might date if it were a Dutch treat. The related expression go Dutch means "to go on a date with each person paying their own way," as in Students often elect to go Dutch. The first term dates from about 1870, and the variant from the early 1900s.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Dutch treat
A meal or entertainment in which the participants all pay their own way. It is an American term dating from the late nineteenth century and may be derived, one writer suggests, from the thrift observed in Dutch immigrants. However, there was an earlier term, Dutch feast, defined by Francis Grose (A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) as an occasion when the host gets drunk before his guests (see also Dutch courage). A more recent version of Dutch treat is going Dutch, which has the identical meaning.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer