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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

†DREDGIE, -Y, n. Also dregie, -y, drai(d)gie, -y, dreegie, drigie, dragie, drudgy. Met. forms of Dirgie, q.v.

1. A funeral feast (Gall.³ c.1867, dredgie; Kcb.⁴ 1900, draigie). Also attrib.Sc. 1819 Scott Bride of Lamm. xxiv.:
Some brandy and aill to the drigie.n.Sc. c.1730 E. Burt Letters North Scot. (1754) I. 268:
When the Company are about to return, a Part of them are selected to go back to the House, where all Sorrow seems to be immediately banished, and Wine is filled about as fast as it can go round; till there is hardly a sober Person among them. . . . This last Homage they call the Drudgy.Abd. 1900 C. Murray Hamewith 36:
As if some deil rejoicin' that anither sowl was lost An' waitin' for his share o' the dregie.Per. 1821 T. Atkinson Three Nights 50:
Fair, wedding or waking, tryst, draigy or kirn, Without him, was but like a wat ravell'd pirn.Gsw. 1873 A. G. Murdoch Lilts 14:
Yon candle lowe is film'd wi' death, An' burns a dredgie flame.Lnk. 1928 W. C. Fraser Yelpin' Stane 31:
The idlers strolled away, many of them to the Bruce Arms Inn to drink a final cup of kindness in memory of their old teacher — the Dredgie, as this is called, after a funeral.Ayr. 1790 A. Tait Poems 106:
The Fox's draidgy did end the day.Ayr. 1821 Galt Ann. Parish xlvi.:
At the very next draigie, after I partook of one service, I made a bow to the servitors and they passed on.w.Dmf. 1903 J. L. Waugh Thornhill 29:
On their return [from the funeral] they sat down to a substantial repast, and consumed before dispersing what was left of the drink. This course was called “drinkin' the dredgie.”

2. Also used for the funeral service (the original meaning).Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr Duguid 182:
A close machine . . . vomits oot the Bishop in his wee short hat and black daidly, who is to read the Dregie.

3. A dirge, a mournful or lugubrious song.m.Lth. 1886 R. F. Hardy Within a Mile viii.:
Mony a glee hae I jined in. Hech, sirs! but we need something a wee mair cheery-like after that dreegie.