Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1971 (DOST Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Mag(g)ill, Maigle, v. Also: mag(g)le, magell, -yll, meagle and Magyn. [North. e.m.E. maggil, -le (1570), otherwise appar. only Sc.Of uncertain etymology: the precise nature of the connexion, if any, with the synonymous ME. (c 1400) and e.m.E. mangle, is not clear.]

tr. To cut or hack about, to maim, mutilate or disfigure in this way, to lacerate, mangle.(a) c1460 Alex. (Taym.) 1307.
Ȝour men of schot so magill sall thair hors Ib. 1387.
Quhill thair battallis with schot sa maglit ware 1527–8 Selkirk B. Ct. fol. 134 a.
We ordand bouchouris … that thai magyll and scoir and flauch nocht thair fleich and specially vnder the spauld 1593 Reg. Privy C. V. 69, 1596 Ib. 382. 1622 Crim. Trials III. 547.
Everie hour … thay gaif him thre crewall straikis with ane durk … and haifing this way maggillit him with threttie straikis [etc.](b) c1590 Fowler I. 76/248.
That Toskane youthe … That maigled had his visage fair for to eshew defame 1602 Reg. Privy C. VI. 332.
[They] hurt and maiglit [three oxen] 1629 Ib. 2 Ser. III. 337.
They cutted the … coffine and inhumanelie maigled the legges feit and others members of the … deid corps(c) 1668 Reg. Privy C. 3 Ser. II. 392.
[They] cutted, wounded and meagled him in the left hand

b. fig. To mangle, mutilate, botch (a literary work or the like). c1500-c1512 Dunb. lix. 3.
A refyng sone of rakyng Muris Hes magellit my making 1513 Doug. (S.T.S.) IV. 194/24.
Ȝhe nother maggill [R. magil] nor mysmetyr my ryme c1590 Fowler I. 16 (see Maim v.). 1651 Johnston Diary (1919) II. 80.
To give a testimony … for Thy nayme which by my going over had been maigled and manked