Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

PORTION, n., v. Sc. usages: I. n. 1. As in Eng., an heir's share of an estate. Sc. Law comb. portion-natural, that part of a deceased's moveable estate which a child, sharing equally with any brothers or sisters, inherits by right from his father or his mother, irrespective of the terms of the will, consisting of one half of the estate when there is no surviving parent, one third when the other parent survives, the Legitim, Bairn's Part of Gear.Sc. 1715 Morison Decisions 424:
The said sums are in full satisfaction for bairns part of gear, portion natural, legitim, etc.Sc. 1756 Erskine Principles iii. ix. § 5:
A certain share of the goods, falling under the communion that is consequent on marriage, belongs, upon the husband's decease, to his widow, jure relictae, and a certain share to his children, called the legitime, portion-natural, or bairns part of gear.Sc. 1802 Appeal Cases Lords (Paton 1849) IV. 368:
The word portion is one of the voces signatae, to signify, in the law of Scotland, legitim, and accordingly the legitim is often called portion natural.Sc. 1899 W. K. Morton Manual 381:
A right given by law to children in the moveable estate of their deceased father, — and, since 1881, their mother also, — otherwise termed portion natural, or bairns' part, which, like jus relictae, is of the nature of the claim of a creditor, and cannot be defeated by will.

2. Specif. a passage chosen from the Bible for reading, esp. at family worship (Abd. 1966).Ayr. 1786 Burns Cotter's Sat. Night xii.:
He wales a portion with judicious care.m.Lth. 1891 R. F. Hardy Tibbie's Tryst 42:
Ye mann tak the big Bible this nicht as yer faither did ilka Sabbath nicht, and read us a portion.Bnff. 1915 W. S. Bruce Nor' East 204:
Weel do I like my parritch and my Bible ilka mornin. I've aye a plate o' the ane and a portion o' the ither.

¶II. v. To decide on or apportion to oneself a course of action, to plan, form an intention. Only in Galt.Ayr. 1823 Galt Howdie (1923) 34:
However, at the last, I had a composed refreshment, and I rose as I had portioned, and went to the inns.