Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

‡CHILE, CHILL, Chyl, Chul, n. Sc. (mainly Abd.) forms of St.Eng. child. Forms with dim. or hypocoristic suff. -ie are common. J. Will gives the form chul in Trans. Bch. Field Club (1924) XIII. 41. Pl. chiller (Abd. (Upper Deeside) 1917 (per Abd.⁸)), cillins. See also Chield. [tʃəil, tʃɪl(ɪ̢), tʃʌl(ɪ̢)]Abd. 1828 P. Buchan Ballads II. 178:
And they hae gi'en her five hundred pounds For to bring up her chill. [Also spelt chile p. 184.]Abd.¹³ 1914:
Aifter the chillies wis a' beddit he gid tull a barber an' got's baird shaven aff.Abd. 1924 A. Barron in Swatches o' Hamespun 45:
Nae mair roch words 'e got, — instead, The chyllies kin'ly wi' ye played.Bch. 1924 J. Wight in Scots Mag. (Oct.) 55:
Said an old dame who “keepit a skweelie,” fifty years ago, taking a child in her arms, “Ye're a protty chullie, an' a solid wacht!”Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr Duguid 25:
I canna tell what we ever had in common, him and me, but that we were cillins, and toddled thegither as bairns through his mother's flure.Tyr. 1929 “M. Mulcaghey” Rhymes of a Besom Man 45:
I made mud pies by the pig craw dure, Like many's the other chile.