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

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First published 2002 (DOST Vol. XI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Trinnell, Trynnill, Tryndill, Trundill, n. Also: trinnyll, trynnyll, trinle, trinell, trynnall, trindell, trenill, trymmill, (trind). [ME and e.m.E. trendle (1324), trindel (c1343), tryndall (1391), tryndylle (1455-6), trundell (1564), trynle (1587), trundle (1602), OE trendel a circle, ring, MLG trendel, MHG trendel, trindel, OSw. trindhel (dial. trinnel) a circle.]

1. A lantern- or cog-wheel in the gearing machinery of a mill.(a) 1512 Antiq. Aberd. & B. III 109.
Quhelys, stanis, trynnillis, irne and ty[mmyr] ganis for the ganging of the said mylne 1672 Stirling Common Good 75b.
4 trinnell broads and trinnells and wayes, to the said milne(b) 1532 M. Works Acc. (ed.) I 101.
For tua tryndillis of aik to the forsaid myln 1623 Prot. Bk. J. Scott loose leaf.
They estimat … the trindell with the rynd and spindell [of the mill] to fywe pundis money(c) 1672 Sinclair Hydrostaticks 299.
[Form of a pumping engine] There is an outter-wheel moved, as other milns are, by the water of the river: upon the end of the axle-tree of which wheel there is a ragg-wheel, … This ragg-wheel by a nutt or trinle turns another; which moves horizontally(d) 1478 Binns P. (SRS) 6.
As to the brekin of the said myln … the said Henry to … mak hir als gud of all graith … as scho was the tyme before he brak and distroyit hir that is to say of a myln rynd a myln spindill and trundillis and a myln stane(e) 1668 Orkney Antiq. Soc. (1926) V 39.
Item the trind & pindle of ane hand malt mylne

b. comb. With brod, one of the two parallel heads or plates in a ‘trindle’. 1557–8 Edinb. Old Acc. I 260.
Item, for making of iiij bands till four tryndill brodds, vj s. 1574–5 Haddington Treas. Acc. 22.
Yrin to mend the gyrth of the trynnall broddis 1574–5 Haddington Treas. Acc. 24.
Twa rowngis to mend the trynnyll broddis 1598 Reg. Privy C. V 495.
[They] brak his said myln, with the milnstanes, quheillis and ornamentis thairof, tuke away with thame the spyndill, rynd and trymmill brodis of the said miln [etc.] 1645 Tulliallan Coal Wks. 146b.
The new mill … For trenill brodis 1647 Tulliallan Coal Wks. 256.
For ane trinell brod 13 s. 4 d. 1672 Stirling Common Good 75b (see 1 (a) above).
Trinnell broads

2. The wheel of a wheelbarrow. 1513 Prestwick B. Rec. 44.
For the vrangvys wythhaldyn of ane trinnyll of ane quheylbarow