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A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1990 (DOST Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Rime, Rym(e, n.¹ Also: rhime, rim. [ME and e.m.E. rime (Orm), rym (Chaucer), OF rime (c1160 in Larousse), fem., for earlier *ridme, *ritme, L. rith-, rythmus measured motion, time, proportion, etc., f. the Gk.For the development of rime in English and in the Romance and Germanic languages, see the etymological note in OED.]

1. Rhyming, or rhymed, verse.Freq. in the phr. in rime.(1) 1375 Barb. iii 178.
Ik hard neuer in sang na ryme Tell off a man [etc.] c1420 Wynt. vii 2062.
That lettyr … till hald the dyte Worde be word, or tyme be tyme, I can noucht lychtly bryng in ryme c1475 Wall. xi 1231.
Bot Wallace end in warld was displesans Tharfor I ces and puttis it nocht in rym 1490 Irland Mir. Pref. in Sc. Ant. XV 9.
Haly writ is put in prose, and sic maner of speking, and nocht in metyr or ryme 1513 Doug. ix Prol. 65.
I haue in ryme thus far furth tane the cur 1583 Reg. Privy C. III 583.
That nane … sett out, … in write or prent, in prois or ryme, … ony sclanderous speitchis [etc.] 1596 Dalr. I 341/8.
His forspeikings that he spak of the effaires of Scotland war in ryme 1669 Laing MSS I 374.
Both in prose and rym(2) 15.. Lord Fergus' Gaist 13.
I haif … Ryme maid and als reiddin 1535 Stewart 49834.
He wes haldin that tyme Ane cunnyng clerk culd mak sic vers and ryme 1600-1610 Melvill 23.
I … lernit sum thing … of the missours and cullors of Scottes ryme(b) 1681 Colvil Whig's Suppl. (1681) i 4.
When rhime bursts out from breast inrag'd, Like turds from puddings overcharg'd

2. A poem, sometimes, specif., a scurrilous composition, in rhyming verse. a1500 Henr. Practysis 4.
Ȝe wald deir me I trow, becaus I am dottit, To ruffill me with a ryme a1508 Kennedy Flyt. 332 (M).
Renunce thy rymes, bayth ban and birne thy bill 1513 Doug. viii Prol. 67.
The ralȝear … ratlis furth ranys, Full rude and royt ressons baith roundalis and ryme Ib. ix xii 115.
Apon hys stryngis playd he mony a spryng, Lays and rymys on the best awys 1533 Boece 305b.
The rymes and geistis feneȝeit of Arthure and his knichtis 1540 Lynd. Sat. 75.
Till our rymes be rung And our mistonit songis be sung c1552 Id. Mon. 550.
Quharefore to colȝearis [etc.] … my ryme sall be diractit 1569-73 Bann. Memor. 90.
Schort efter the knowledge of this rowstie ryme, the General Assemblie … was to conveine in Edinburcht 1579–80 Treas. Acc. XIII 275.
Williame Scott and [blank] Feldy, luttar, dilaitit for making of infamous rymes and ballettis a1585 Maitland Maitl. Q. 174/24.
Mak buikis and rymes of recantatioun 1584 Acts III 295/2.
That nane … keip in register or stoir ony bukis, ryme, act, band or writt quhatsumeuir tending to the … approbatioun of the same attemptat at Ruthven 1600-1610 Melvill 423.
A dwabbling countrey ryme, meittar to be swipped away with the mouse-wobbes, nor [etc.] 1604-31 Craig ii 39.
Nor can my rim's reueale my inward woe 1609 Acts IV 436/1.
Thair pasquillis, libellis, rymis, cokalanis, commedies, … whereby they slander … the people, estait, and countrey of England 1654 Sc. Ant. IX 84.
Chalenged … if he made a filthy rym and sonnet

b. (One's) rime, poetry; poems, collectively; perh., however, merely further examples of 2 above. 1501 Doug. Pal. Hon. 670.
Thow [has] … My lady heir blasphemit in thy rime Id. Æn. i Prol. 496.
Gyf I haue falȝeit, baldly reprufe my ryme

3. Metre; measure; agreement in the sounds of words at the ends of lines of verse. 1513 Doug. i Prol. 305.
I am constrenyt als neir I may To hald hys vers … Les sum history, subtell word or the ryme Causith me mak digressioun Ib. fol. 329a/24.
Tak gud tent … Ȝhe nother maggill nor mysmetyr my ryme Nor alter not my wordis 1566-70 Buch. Comm. on Virgil Eclogues ix 45.
Numeros, the ryme or tone c1590 J. Stewart 149 heading.
Ane new sort of rymand rym, Rymand alyk in rym and rym, Rymd efter sort of guid Rob Steine

4. proverb. ? Only in sense 3 above.Chiefly in phr. in which rime is coupled with resoun. For further instances, see Reso(u)n n. 13. 1535 Stewart 3069.
He luikit nocht to ressone nor to ryme 1549 Compl. 139/30.
Ȝe hef flyttyn ande berkit but ryme or rason al the lang daye a1598 Ferg. Prov. No. 905.
We [sic] breid of the gouk, ye have not a ryme but ane a1628 Carmichael Prov. No. 1169.
Manie man maks ryme and luikes to na reason