Dutch widow

English

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Noun

Dutch widow (plural Dutch widows)

1. (archaic or obsolete) A female prostitute.
   • c. 1605 (first performance; published 1608), Thomas Middleton, “A Trick to Catch the Old One”, in A[rthur] H[enry] Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton […] (The English Dramatists), volume II, London: John C. Nimmo […], published 1885, →OCLC, Act III, scene iii, page 301:

     Dra. He says none came in yet, sir, but one mistress Florence.
     Hoa. What is that Forence? A widow?
     Dra. Yes, a Dutch widow.
     Hoa. How?
     Dra. That's an English drab, sir

     The spelling has been modernized.