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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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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.

BROGUE, Brog, Broag, n.¹ A rough Highland shoe of untanned hide, stitched with thongs of leather. Orig. Irish and Sc. but now St.Eng. and used everywhere to denote a heavy shoe of any kind. Also dim. brogan. Hence broguer, a maker of brogues (Mry. 1889 Private MS.). [brog]Sc. 1821 The Athol Gathering in Hogg (ed.) Jacobite Relics II. 98:
Bend the musket, point the rapier, Shift the brog for Lowland shoe.Sc. 1834 H. Miller Scenes 277: 
The broguer or maker of Highland shoes, kept the field in spite of the regular shoemaker . . . and disappeared only about five years ago.Inv. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ III. 25:
And the Highland brogues are still the ordinary dress of the men.Slg. 1738 in Trans. Stirling Nat. Hist. and Arch. Soc. (1924) 43:
John Lyon charged with failing to give up two pair of broags taken from a stranger in the market place.Kcb. 1895 S. R. Crockett Bog-Myrtle and Peat 294:
A tramp of heavy Galloway brogans was heard.

Phr.: shuffle the brogue, — brog, the game of hunt-the-slipper (Kcb. 1898 A. B. Gomme Dict. Brit. Folk-Lore II. 454; Uls.² 1937).Ayr. 1895 J. Walker Old Kilmarnock 66: 
Another game was "Shovel the brog," in playing at which the boys all sat down with their backs to the wall, while a something- it might be a knife, or a button, or a marble- was passed from one to another. We kept repeating "Shovel the brog, shovel the brog, shovel the brog, brog, brog," while a boy in front endeavoured to find the boy who had it.n.Ir. 1884 Cruck-a-Leaghan and Slieve Gallion Lays and Leg. of n. Ir. 53:
The oul' game av Shuffle the Brogue. [Footnote: A game generally played at wakes and parties.] [In Tyr., according to Wm. Carleton (1794–1869), this game was known as sitting brogue.]

Used as verb: to play hunt-the-slipper. Also fig.Sc. 1819 J. Rennie St Patrick I. v. 75–76:
They sent aff tae Tralooney tae get a claught o' the warlock parchments, but a pauky hizzy that had the keeping o' them . . . wheepet awa in a jiffy, — an' left a wheen o' her ain folk tae shuffle the brog, till she wan aff hale scart hersel' bag and baggage.