Dutch-reckoning Definition

noun

1828, Death on Board-Wages, published in Tales of an Antiquary (volume 2 of 3) by Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street, London.

"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.

Wiktionary

2009, Georgette Heyer, Frederica, page 75.

'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.'

Wiktionary

(nautical, possibly offensive) A false or incorrect reckoning of position.

Wiktionary

Used other than as an idiom. as reckoned by the Dutch: five o'clock by the Dutch reckoning would be five o'clock in the Dutch rather than, e.g., a Canadian time zone; for example, 1 March 1625 in the Dutch reckoning was, in the English reckoning of the time, 19 February 1624(?).

Wiktionary