Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A box or vessel for butter.
- n. A Dutchman.
Wiktionary
- n. archaic, slang, UK A derogatory name that British sailors gave the Dutch during the age of the Anglo-Dutch Wars.
Etymologies
- The idiom may have derived from the flag of Holland, which at the time had an orange stripe on top. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“He cut off a side, squeezed lime juice into his drink, then put the lime back in the refrigerator, cut side down, on top of the butter-box lid.”
“You may have seen many a quaint craft in your day, for aught I know; — square-toed luggers; mountainous Japanese junks; butter-box galliots, and what not; but take my word for it, you never saw such a rare old craft as this same rare old Pequod.”
“With a flump then he was down on the butter-box he kept for a seat.”
“The _Dutch_ of all ranks are fond of butter, and seldom is a journey taken without a butter-box in the pocket.”
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 380, July 11, 1829
“Dern'd 'f I'd' a 'come,' f I'd 'a' known th 'old butter-box was goin' to be s 'frisky.”
“She wanted us to come to her house, but it's the size of a butter-box, and stuffy; so she insisted on sending three quilts.”
“A little fire of twigs and a broken butter-box on the hearth made a pathetic shift at domestic cheer.”
The Best Short Stories of 1917 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story
“She was a lump of a thingwhat the sailors call a butter-box.”
“Law! don't you go to stirrin 'on him up," said Mrs. Solomon Page comfortably, putting on the cover of her butter-box, which had contained the family lunch.”
“He's the charley-pitcher for to handle this butter-box. ”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘butter-box’.
-
Quenelles of Random Palavery
More randomly-garnered terms from the world of words that don't quite yet fit into my other lists.
Goddidit, barcelona, filigrain, good-natured, ill-natured, half-bit, endosome, underplaying, parotid, denormalization, sleightgeist, wheezing and 2334 more...
-
Dutchly things
Words having some sort of Dutch origin, probably boring to everyone but me — I'm currently browsing 2,422 entries having "Dutch" in their definitions/etymologies, the best of which should fin...
mynheerify, mynheer, advocaat, dutch bargain, blauwbok, butter-box, quardeel, clinquant, closh, coot, dodkin, dorp and 85 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for butter-box.
she Contemptuous designation for a Dutchman (also butter-bag, butter-mouth); also, in nautical slang, a Dutch ship.
These make very little sense to me. Aug 6, 2008