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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

DRESS, v., n. Sc. usages.

I. v.

†1. (1) To address. Obs. in Eng. since 17th cent.Sc. 1746 Culloden Papers (ed. Warrand 1930) V. 83:
I begg if your Lordship has any spare time, you may dress me two or three lines of advice.

¶(2) With at: to aim at, “set one's cap at.”Sc. 1797 Aberdeen Mag. 435:
Many a maid has been turned away, upon her account, for dressing at the men, as she calls it, looking out at the window, or standing at the street-door, in a summer's evening.

2. Specif. uses of Eng. meaning of “to prepare, make ready”: (1) of linens: to iron (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Cai. 1900 E.D.D.; Cai.⁷, Bnff.², Abd.², Ags.¹⁷, Fif.¹³ 1940); hence dressing-iron, a smoothing iron (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Cai. 1900 E.D.D.); (2) to prepare a web for the loom by treating the yarn with a starch made from flour, etc. (Sc. 1814 J. Sinclair Agric. Scot. III. 317; Fif.³ 1930); hence dresser, one who operates a dressing machine (Id.; vbl.n. dressin(g), (a) the flour-paste or size used by weavers (Per. 1915 Wilson L. Strathearn 244); (b) (see second quot.); (c) in comb. dressing-box, the box used for holding the paste; (3) to prepare sheep for a show (Arg. 1948).(2) Sc. 1724 Treatise on Fallowing 99:
That Stuff wherewith they dress their Warp . . . the older and staler your dressing Stuff is, it is somuch the better.(a) Fif. 1894 A. S. Robertson Provost 20:
The feck o' them hae the smell o' dressin' i' their noses a' the week.Lnk. 1880 P. M'Arthur Amusements 75:
How could the water of Cologne mix wi' soor weaver's dressin'?Ayr. 1836 Galt in Tait's Mag. (Aug.) 516:
Your grandmother heard the Paisley bodies were famous for making dressing.(b) Gsw. 1860 J. Young Lays from Poorhouse 83:
But whiles, as he'd wrocht aff a “dressin'” or twa, Wi' his beam for a beuk-board, a blinkie he'd staw.Ant. 1892 Ballymena Obs.:
A dressin' is the length of the loom, which is all that can be dressed at a time, and a weaver calculates his work by the dressin'. He can weave so many dressin's in the day.(c) Lnk. 1805 G. M'Indoe Poems 10:
The yarn misbet, the comb, a card, The dressing-box a broken shard.

3. To geld, esp. of cats. Gen.Sc.Arg.¹ 1940:
Dae ye ken o' onybody that wad dress a cat for me?

4. In ppl. adj. wearing fresh, clean clothes (Sh., Ork., Cai., Bnff., Abd., Ags., Fif., Ayr., Dmf., Rxb. 2000s).Edb. 2005:
There wis Ah, dressed, an does a lorry no gaun by an cover me in glaur.

II. n. Used with def. art. to denote the Highland dress.Sc. 1819 R. Southey Tour (1929) 194:
All natives [of Glengarry] were expected to appear in the dress (the dress is the phrase, ut lucus a non lucendo).