Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1960 (SND Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

HEATER, n. Also haeter, heeter. Sc. usages:

‡1. An iron stand or rack on which scones or oatcakes are placed for toasting in front of the fire.Sc. 1829 G. Robertson Recollections 93:
[There was] a babret, or bakeboard, with its fluted roller, for forming and pressing out oat-cakes; a flat, iron girdle, for firing, and a heater, for toasting them.Sh. 1918 T. Manson Peat Comm. I. 197:
Ill-helt ipo dis brunie. Dir no richt fat, an dir nae haeter ta set afore da fire.

2. A warming-up drink of liquor (Kcb. 1956).Edb. 1840 D. Sage Mem. Domest. (1889) 230:
They began the potations by swallowing a glass of whisky, as a heater as they called it, and then as a cooler after it, drank a bottle of twopenny or small beer.

3. A wedge-shaped bun glazed on top and sprinkled with sugar (Abd.² c.1930; ne.Sc. 1956), so-called from its similarity in shape to a heater for a box-iron.Abd.²⁹ 1952:
Six or eight heaters are baked together in a round which is marked diagonally and each triangular section separated by hand from its neighbour after cooking.

4. A triangular piece of ground, esp. one at a road fork or one bounded by three roads or paths (Abd. 1953).