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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GROSET, n. Also grozet. A gooseberry, esp. (in Abd.) a green gooseberry (Abd., m. and s.Sc. 1955). Also grosset, -it, grozzet, grozette; grosad (Cai.⁸ 1934), grosard (Sc. 1776 Caled. Mercury (27 Aug.)) and gros(s)ert; grosart (Bnff., Abd., Slk. 1955), grossart, grozert (Lth. 1926 Wilson 246, Bwk. 1942 Wettstein 66), -art, and reduced form grosie (Rs. 1949 Gsw. Herald (7 Feb.)). Also green grozet (wine), a gooseberry wine. Also attrib. [′grozə(r)t]Sc. 1772 Scots Mag. (May 1934) 146:
And rizars, black berries and grosarts, And flowers our senses to please.Ayr. 1786 Burns To a Louse v.:
My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose out, As plump an' gray as onie grozet.Sc. 1822 Scott F. Nigel xiv.:
My sooth, they will jump at them in Edinburgh like a cock at a grossart. Gold pieces are not so plenty there, the mair the pity!Ayr. 1823 Galt Entail lxxiv.:
Direction-books to mak grozette wine.Dwn. 1844 R. Huddleston Poems 65:
Perch'd on a thorn whose aged tap Was gray, o' grozet plume.Ags. 1854 Arbroath Guide (12 Aug.) 4:
Having so far forgotten himself as to stealthily appropriate the grossarts . . . to his own use.Abd. 1865 G. Macdonald Alec Forbes III. viii.:
Winna ye hae a starnie jam, Isie? It's grosert-jam.wm.Sc. 1868 Laird of Logan 302:
Sax grosset-busses as round as a bee's skep, and, without leeing, ilka ane the bouk of a rick of hay.Kcb. 1895 Crockett Moss-Hags xxxviii.:
I shall let them stay all day in the gardens where the grosarts are.Rxb. 1925 E. C. Smith Mang Howes 23:
Hei glaamed at eet leike a cock at a grozert.Lnk. 1926 W. Queen We're a' Coortin' 13:
An' for his grozzets, they wurney worth the room they wur gien in the show.Bwk. 1947 W. L. Ferguson Makar's Medley 30:
A chin as rough as ony grozet.Sc. 1956 F. Marian McNeill The Scots Cellar: its traditions and lore (1973) 253:
GREEN-GROZET (GOOSEBERRY) WINE
8 lb. Gooseberries
2 gallons water
3 lb. sugar to each gallon of juice
The gooseberries should be ripe, but not over-ripe ... m.Sc. 1988 William Neill Making Tracks 90:
He'll sweir et ye frae ben the tattie-shaws
an eats yir grozets richt afore yir face. wm.Sc. 1989 William McIlvanney Walking Wounded 83:
'Sh!' Gus said. 'We don't go at this like a cock at a grozet.'
'A grozet?' Fin asked.
'A gooseberry, Fin,' Gus said. Arg. 1992:
Ye look like a grozet (meaning unshaven). Sc. 1999 Herald 30 Sep 9:
Ebulum Black Ale comes from the original Saxon term for elderberry, and Grozet wheat ale, far from sending you straight to accident and emergency, is brewed from gooseberries. Sc. 1999 Herald 18 Oct 22:
Tibbie Shiels, the one-time owner of the inn of that name, was a pal of Walter Scott's and they would regularly, in the company of poet James Hogg, share a glass of green grozet, a strong, sweet wine containing gooseberries.

Comb.: groset-fair, grozet-, an agricultural fair held in Kilmarnock at the beginning of August when gooseberries are in season. There is also a Groset-Fair in Doune (Per. 1955).Ayr. 1856 Ayr Advertiser (7 Aug.):
Kilmarnock. “Groset” Fair Saturday. — This fair was held here on Saturday last.Ayr. 1870 Ib. (4 Aug.):
“Grozet” Fair. — The customary agricultural July fair was held on Thursday last. . . . In the cattle market . . . there was a considerable turn-out of horses, which were sold briskly at high prices . . . There was also a good number of pigs . . . An immense number of people left town by rail on Saturday — the town holiday known as “Grozet Saturday.”Ayr. 1901 “G. Douglas” Green Shutters xvi.:
Swipey had journeyed in the company of his father to far-off Fechars, yea even to the groset-fair.Ayr. 1953 J. E. Shaw Ayrshire 34:
One cannot leave Kilmarnock without mention of the Grozet Fair, in the first week of August.