A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1581-1700
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Surge, n. [e.m.E. sourge (Caxton), surge (1523), OF sourgon (13th c. in Larousse), L. surgere.] A high, rolling swell of water; a large wave or billow. 1596 Dalr. I 30/11.
[Loch Lomond] oft fleitande with gret surges and waues lyke the wais of the sey 1596 Dalr. I 33/6.
The boundes heirfra till Irland is only xvi myles … bot lykwyse for the concurring of the troublous ebbing and flowing of the sey, surges, and wais with vthiris, is verie perilous to the seymen and marinelies 1596 Dalr. I 33/11.
The Mule of Kaintyr … quhair is committed lyke a battel amang the surges of the maine sey, fleiting and flowing thairout 1596 Dalr. I 59/14.
Throuch Pintland firth, quhair contrare surges and waues of the sey flowis fordward and bakward with sik violence … that thair thay can nocht sail 1581-1623 James VI Poems I 162/941.
For euen as from a surge, the waues Are sliding after waues c1650-1700 Descr. Zetland 31.
When it blows a stress, … the air or bank is all covered over with the sea, … [but] at the regress of the surges, they come safely through
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"Surge n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 13 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/surge>
