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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

STUG, n.², adj., v.² Also stugg; stog, stoag, stogue; stewg, styogue, styug, ¶stuog (ne.Sc.). [stʌg; stog; ne.Sc. + stj-]

I. n. 1. A jagged or uneven cut, anything left rough and stumpy by careless cutting; specif. in pl., unevenly-cut stubble (Kcd. 1825 Jam.: ‡Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.); the stump of hair left by roughly cropping a horse. Adj. stuggy, stoggy, uneven, with an irregular outline, of cut corn (Sc. 1808 Jam.), and transf.: in a more gen. sense, rough, and specif. of cloth: of a coarse rough texture (Cld. 1825 Jam.).m.Lth. 1722 Caled. Mercury (19 Feb.):
A dark gray Geldin, the Hair on the far Side of the Neck being shorn by the Stug.Rxb. 1808 A. Scott Poems 98–101:
Let's sleely gie't [corn] a stug . . . Awfu' stugs are seen to cock Their birse ahind them now, Knee-height this day.Cld. 1880 Jam.:
A comb is said to be stuggy, when some of its teeth are broken, and it therefore rugs the hair.

Used attrib. in combs. with adj. force = cut short, docked, stumpy: (1) stug-horned, with short stumpy horns. Cf. n., 3.; (2) stug rump, a docked tail, of a horse; (3) stug-tail, id. Ppl.adj. stug-tailed.(1) Ayr. 1780 I. Pagan Songs 40:
In comes Watty Bell, he was something fou' He . . . bought a stug-horned cow.(2) Sc. 1766 Caled. Mercury (22 Oct.) 507:
An old healed wound over her shoulder, with a stug rump.(3) Edb. 1699 Edb. Gazette (30 Oct.):
A brown stou'd Horse, stug Tail'd.Abd. 1758 Abd. Journal (28 Nov.):
Very short lugs, stug-tailed, and has never been shod.Clc. 1772 Edb. Ev. Courant (27 July):
Stug-tail'd, and clipped in the manes.

2. A short backward-bent irregular horn on an animal's head, “as used in this sense freq. pronounced stook” (n.Sc. 1825 Jam.), and prob. more correctly belonging with Stook, n.²

3. A stump, of a tree, or bush (n.Sc. 1825 Jam.; †Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Lth. 1971); a lump, a stiff congealed mass.Gall. 1822 R. Trotter Lowran Castle 127:
The brain, the stugs of clotted blood, and the shattered skull.Knr. 1925 H. Haliburton Horace 197:
But there are caulds an' yawkin' stogs.Sc. 1936 J. G. Horne Flooer o' Ling 57:
A stog will gether nocht but fog.

4. A stocky coarse-built person, one whose movements are stiff and awkward, occas. applied to animals; a stout masculine woman (Bnff. 1948), also in derivs. stuggal (Ork. 1971), stugger; fig. an obstinate, intractable person (Abd. 1915, stewg). Adj. stuggie, sturdy, stocky.Abd. 1880 G. Webster Crim. Officer 14:
I was a gey grown styog o' a loon fan I left Mr. Barnett's employment.Fif. 1895 S. Tytler Macdonald Lass ix.:
Oh! the big ungainly woman? (Was she not a stugger?).Abd., Kcd. 1921 T.S.D.C.:
He's awa' to an aul' stogue o' a horse — said of a farmer on the downgrade.Sc. 1937 J. Bridie Tedious and Brief (1944) 104:
[Hugh McDiarmid] is also in some sense a Scottish character himself. He might be listed as a totey, pernicketty, sometimes rigwoodie, stug.Abd. 1955 W. P. Milne Eppie Elrick iii.:
A fine canny humoursome styogue.Ork. 1971:
A fine stuggie beast. A stuggie peerie fellow.

II. adj. “Stiff and not well set up” (Abd. 1921 T.S.D.C.). Also in deriv. form styuggal (Ib.).

III. v. 1. To cut with a rough, stumpy edge, esp. in harvesting grain with a sickle: to cut the stubble unevenly (Kcd., Fif., Slk. 1825 Jam., stog, stug); to crop (a horse's mane or tail). Ppl.adj. stugged, cropped.Sc. 1699 Edb. Gazette (7 Sept.):
A light Bay Naig black cut tailed and stug'd main.

2. To walk in a blundering heavy-footed manner, to plod or stump, of a clumsy or aged or infirm person (Gall., Slk. 1825 Jam.; Dmf. 1894 Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. 155; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Sh. 1971).Slk. 1818 Hogg B. of Bodsbeck iii.:
I slings aye on wi' a gay lang step; . . . Stogs aye on.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 398:
How angry did he hotch and stog.Lnk. a.1832 W. Watt Poems (1860) 234:
Sae ben the hoose he stugs bedeen.Dmf. 1875 A. Anderson Two Angels 206:
Mony a san' man ane could name Stogs an' slings aboot.Sh. 1899 J. Inkster Mansie's Röd (1922) 136:
I stugg'd up ower da station ta get a half o' gill.Rxb. 1925 E. C. Smith Mang Howes. 7:
A stoaggeet-on on the shadeet seide.