A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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About this entry:
First published 1983 (DOST Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1666-1700+
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Ploy, n.2 (Also in the later dial. = an undertaking, (business) enterprise (1722), piece of fun, practical joke (1749), social gathering, party (1782), employment, occupation (1894). Of doubtful origin; perh. an aphetic use of 17th c. Eng. employ noun.) —1666-74 Fraser Polichron. 188.
Huntly … said he had litle a doe to buy ployes in this nature, he might be better employed 1704 Cramond Kirk S. V. 135.
Katharin Coupar … said to him that she could tell him a ploy
