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The phrase to take Dutch leave means: to depart unnoticed or without permission.
This phrase occurs, for example, in Doe Bay News, published in The Orcas Islander (Orcas Island, Washington, USA) of Thursday 17th July 1947 [page 2, column 4]:
The most amazing thing that happened in Doe Bay last week was the return of Byrle Hall’s prodigal pig. The porker had been taking dutch [sic] leave and had been missing for over 100 days when Byrle and his son noticed it through their field glasses, far up on Doe Bay Mountain.
To take Dutch leave is one of several phrases in which the adjective Dutch is used derogatorily or derisively—cf., for example, the expression Dutch courage.
A synonym of to take Dutch leave is the earlier phrase to take French leave. The adjective French, too, has been used derogatorily or derisively—cf., for example, the expression French letter, designating a condom.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase to take Dutch leave that I have found:
—Note: With one exception—cf., below, quotation 1—all these early occurrences are from U.S. publications:
1-: From Catherine Erlof (London: T. C. Newby, 1851), by the Irish novelist Isabella Steward (1796-1867) [volume 2, chapter 1, page 11]:
Brigit marked down her orders with new spirit, assigning to each intended martyr more labour than was exacted from a galley-slave; but lo! when the tasks were duly registered, the task-doers were found wanting; they had fled, taking Dutch-leave of their Duenna for the day; not choosing to incur the crime of disobedience they had decamped to the fair before field orders could be issued.
2-: From the Houma Ceres (Houma, Louisiana, USA) of Thursday 8th November 1855 [page 2, column 2]—Plaquemine is a city in Louisiana:
Yellow Jack, who has till now been busily engaged in his great work of destruction among the Plaquemininans, has in consequence of the appearance of his dire enemy, Jack Frost, been compelled to take Dutch leave. We beheld his departure without even a sigh of regret. May his absence be a long and contracted one—will add a continuous one.
3-: From the Rutland Daily Herald (Rutland, Vermont, USA) of Friday 28th September 1866 [page 3, column 2]:
Bold Thieving Operation.—Last Sundar [sic] Mr. P. Collins and family, of Bennington Center, went away on a visit to friends, leaving the house in charge of one Seymour, an employee of Mr. Collins. When he returned at night, he found the doors and windows tightly fastened, so that Mr. C. had to break into his own house. It was at once discovered that Seymour had turned thief, having stolen some $150 worth of clothing and taken Dutch leave. At last accounts nothing had been heard of him.
4-: From Cowering the Tyrant, a short story by ‘Dr. H. E. B.’, published in the Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) of Friday 19th September 1873 [page 6, column 1]—in the title of that story, cower is a transitive verb meaning to lower:
We came into Cape Town […].
Our stay was brief here. Long enough for the captain to replenish his larder and ship a set of topmasts. But when the crew were mustered for the customary harangue in the waist, it was found that two of our smartest hands were among the missing. […] The visions of a land strewn with diamonds had flitted across their minds, until the one idea had grown a part of their daily thoughts, and now, while the ultima thule of their ambition was reached, they had quietly taken Dutch leave and skipped away to the Diamond Fields.
5-: From The Evening Journal (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) of Friday 11th December 1885 [page 2, column 2]—the Bethany Home for Fallen Women, in Minneapolis, was established in 1876 by a Quaker religious society known as the Sisterhood of the Bethany:
She Loved Too Well.
Theresa Gonig, an untutored German girl, just over from the old country, has known too well a young German since she came to this city, and this morning the police were called upon to take her to Bethany Home. She charges one A. Achleitner with being the father of her unborn child, and accordingly swore out a warrant for his arrest. Careful inquiry reveals the fact that he has taken Dutch leave of the city.
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