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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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

HOT, n., v. Also hott, hote; †haut, hat; hut(t), esp. in n., 3.; ¶holt. [Sc. hɔt, hʌt, s.Sc. + hot]

I. n. †1. A basket or pannier used esp. for carrying manure, hinged at the foot to allow the contents to be dropped easily on the fields (Gall. 1808 Jam., hut; Dmf. 1894 Trans. Dmf. & Gall. Antiq. Soc. 150, hut; Kcb. 1957). Also in n.Eng. dials.Gall. 1822 Trotter Lowran Castle 118:
Bailie Clugston on his little dun Galloway . . . two hotts merrily swinged from side to side, as swiftly he rode along.

2. A small heap, sc. the amount contained in a hott, esp. of manure distributed over a field in preparation for spreading (Dmf. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XIII. 560; Cld., s.Sc. 1825 Jam.; Bwk. 1919 T.S.D.C. III., hut; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Lth. 1926 Wilson Cent. Scot. 249; m.Lth., wm.Sc., Gall., s.Sc. 1957, hut); also of stones collected in small heaps before being carted away (wm.Sc. 1957).Sc. c.1700 R. Ford Vagabond Songs (1904) 281:
There was hay to ca', and lint to lead, A hunder hotts o' muck to spread.Sc. 1812 J. Sinclair Systems Husb. Scot. i. 181:
He . . . lays down the shells in huts about 60 or 80 bolls per acre Scotch: as soon as it is powdered, he spreads the huts, and harrows the field, and lets it remain till May.Slk. 1822 Hogg Perils of Man II. 255:
Will then laid his arm over the boy and the hott o' claes, and fell sound asleep.Rxb. 1925 E. C. Smith Mang Howes 13:
There was a gey little hote o muilleens left for Lazarus!

3. A small stack of corn, hay or flax, built to protect the crop temporarily from the weather before removal to the stackyard (Abd.⁸ 1917; Ags., Per., m.Lth., wm.Sc., Uls. 1957, hut). Also dim. hutock (Abd. 1903 W. Watson Auld Lang Syne 113), and comb. hand-hut, see Hand, n., 9. (21).Rnf. 1706 W. Hector Judicial Rec. (1876) I. 196:
He hid himself behind or beneath ane other hutt of corn standing upon the field.Abd. 1729 S.C.Misc. (1940) II. 124:
Their whole corns here are first led off the fields and built before the door in litle hutts and after that they build them in larger stacks.wm.Sc. 1773 Sc. Farmer I 555:
A hut of corn is a small clump or stack, resembling a hay quoil or rick; and consists of about forty, fifty, or more sheaves.Inv. 1808 J. Robertson Agric. Inv. 27:
The hay may be dried in the same manner as grass-hay, and laid up in huts, where it is to be used.Ayr. 1845 Stat. Acc.² V. 228:
The harvest often proving wet, in order to prevent the corn from receiving injury from the weather, previous to being stacked, it is built into small piles called huts, containing five or six stooks each. The manner of forming these huts is as follows; two sheaves are set up reclining against each other, two sheaves are placed at right angles against these, so as to form a small pyramid; a row of sheaves is next placed sloping around these; another course is then made, which forms the base of the hut, about five feet in diameter. On this more courses are built, each course decreasing in diameter until the hut assumes the form of a cone. Two large sheaves are then placed upon the top, the bands being drawn up so as to allow the bottoms of the sheaves to be spread out and form a thatch. A small rope is then twisted from the grassy end of the sheaf, with which the top sheaves are firmly bound together. When neatly formed, these huts will resist the heaviest rains for several weeks, the top sheaves only sustaining injury.Uls. 1942 E. E. Evans Irish Heritage 101:
In wet districts the sheaves are later built into small round stacks, “barts” or “huts,” until the time comes to carry them home.

4. Fig. A fat, lazy, indolent person (Ags. 1808 Jam., hut); a slattern (Cld. 1825 Jam., hut). Cf. Heap, n., 3., id.Bwk. 1856 G. Henderson Pop. Rhymes 79:
Dight your gruntle, scrape your bree Owre clarty hutts ye bear the gree.

II. v. 1. To heap up, heap together (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B., hot, hut; Dmf. 1957, hot); “to gather with the fingers, as one collects stones with a garden-rake” (Slk. 1825 Jam.); of turnips, to heap up before carting away (m.Lth.¹ 1957); to shovel out dung in heaps from a cart (Dmf. 1957).s.Sc. 1857 H. S. Riddell Psalms xxxix. 6:
He hotts up guids an' geer, an' kensna wha sall gether thame.

2. Of sheaves of grain: to put these up in small stacks in the field in order to protect the ears from weather or birds (Sc. 1825 Jam., hut; Ags., Slg., m.Lth., wm. and s.Sc., Uls. 1957). Vbl.n. hutting. See n., 3.Ayr. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XIV. 56:
What is dry is taken in, and what is unfit for the barn or barn-yard is hutted again.Ags. 1811 J. Stirton Thrums (1896) 66:
Any that people got shorn stood in the fields untill it was all most lost by rotting and growing for their was no dray time that people could pute any of it to stake or hute for it would not keepe.Dmf. 1869 Trans. Highl. Soc. 293:
“Hutting” in the fields is very rarely resorted to, even in the worst seasons.Sc. 1946 Observer (22 Sept.):
In my own part of Ayrshire, Carrick, we are using a traditional way of preserving the crop that is still out and cannot dry . . . it is a practical if less tidy form of what elsewhere is termed hutting.

Hence vbl.n. h(o)uting, the topmost protective sheaf in a hut.Ayr. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XIV. 56:
If there is the appearance of rain, they set all hands to work, even at midnight, and put them up in what are called Huts, built in the form of a rick of hay, and covered with two of the largest and the wettest sheaves, called Houtings.