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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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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.

BRIDLE, †braydel. n. Sc. usages.

1. “The bridle of a Loom, Running Bridle, Cross Bridle” (Sc. 1899 Mont.-Fleming).Rnf. 1876 D. Gilmour Paisley Weavers iii.:
When the lashes were kinched, there was a bridling cord attached to each head, ten or twelve inches apart, so that the first and last and all intermnediate lashes were connected by this “running bridle.”Rnf. 1904 M. Blair Paisley Shawl 36: 
The lasher had at his left hand a bobbin of strong cotton thread, and running his eye from left to right, if claret covers two squares, he interlaces the cotton thread behind the corresponding threads of the simple, and so on across the face of the design. This is now knotted up and called a "lash." The next colour, green, is treated in like manner, and so on, till all the colours are gone over, and when completed they form a "bridle." Each lash represented one colour, and each bridle the whole of the colours in one line of weft.

Comb.:  bridle wire, the wire used in the cards of a jacquard loom (Ayr. 1951).

2. Phrases: †(1) to bite on the bridle, to be in great straits; (2) to keep a bridle hand, to keep in control (Ags.¹, Slg.³ 1936).(1) Sc. 1819 Scott Bride of Lamm. xxiv.:
Let her bite on the bridle when she was living . . . and gie her a decent burial now she's dead.(2) Sc. 1724–1727 Ramsay T. T. Misc. (1733) 135:
Thou rade sae fast by sea and land, And wadna keep a bridle hand.

3. Comb.: bridle backs, “short pieces of wood nailed across the upper end of the cupples, just below the hûnes [extremes of cupples where they join at roof]” (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.; Abd.⁹ 1936). See Bauk,¹ n., 2.

4. In Building: a cross-beam, holding the ends of joists when these are not supported by a wall, a trimmer (Sc. 1952 Builder (20 June) 952). Abd. 1707 Abd. Jnl. N. & Q. VII. 63: 
For slopeing and bigging in againe the corbals and braydels of the sd. harth.Ayr. 1734 Ayr Presb. Reg. MS. (3 July): 
For Soles and Bridels Three pound scots.

5. A chain to prevent coal-hutches overturning on a steep incline (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 13), also in comb. bridle-chain (Id.).