Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BOUTGATE, -GAIT, Bood-gait, Bout-gang, Boutgain, Bouting, Boutin, n.

1. (See quots.) Known to Abd.², Kcb.⁹ (obsol.) 1935.Sc. 1887 Jam.⁶:
Boutgate, Boutgang, Boutgain, Bouting, Boutin. Lit. a going about, the extent of an about or a round: hence, the act of making it; the distance traversed, the time occupied, or the work done, during the round. Thus, in mowing, a boutgate or bouting is the space gone over or the work done with one sharp, i.e. one sharpening of the scythe; in ploughing it means two furrows, the out and the return one. [See Bout, n.², 2.]Gall. 1912 A. Chalmers in Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. 290:
“He ploughed a bood-gait,” i.e. the up and down furs of the plough

2. A roundabout way; fig. a ruse, underhand means.Sc. 1737 Ramsay Proverbs 34:
I never loo'd Bout-gates, quoth the Wife when she harl'd her Man o'er the Ingle.Fif. 1827 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd 176:
Sic droll bout-gates, sic sma' mean means, Bryng michty kings, and dukes and thanes Aft to their laighest marrow-banes!Slg. 1818 W. Muir Poems 267:
They'll twist me to naething or less at the last, An' mak' me a bout-gait to ilka bit place.Ayr. 1823 Galt R. Gilhaize I. 99:
Perth was a wide bout-gait to take frae St Andrews to come to Edinburgh

Hence bout-gaits, adv., in an underhand way.Abd. 1921 M. Argo Janet's Choice 22:
Dinna tell me she gangs bout-gaits wi' things.

3. Mining: in a shallow pit, a secondary access road to the mine from the surface, independent of the shaft (Fif., Ayr. 1958, obs.). em.Sc. 1842 Children in Mines Report II. 381:
Where the levels admit 'boutgates are run in the hill-side. Fif. 1863 St Andrews Gaz. (14 Feb.):
The only proper way for the miners to get into the pit is by an inclined path, assisted by stairs, called technically the 'boutgate'.