A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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About this entry:
First published 2002 (DOST Vol. XI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1590, 1657-1695
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Vast, Wast, adj. Also: vaest. [e.m.E. vast (1575-85), vaste (1590), F. vaste, L. vastus.] Extensive, enormous, large, great. a. Of an area. b. Of something non-material, chiefly of amount or quantity.a. c1590 Fowler I 251/9.
If it be yovr fate wast seas to love, Of my becalmed breast learne how to moveb. a1658 Durham Comm. Rev. Ep. to Reader.
Thou wilt … discover vast lecture in history, great light in the scriptures a1658 Durham Commandments (1676) 105.
If our professions … were met and measured by our reality, O how lamentable vast a disproportion would be found 1665 Rec. Convention of Royal Burghs III 579.
Severall liberties … the obtaining quhairof hes coast them great and vaest charges 1665–7 Lauder Jrnl. 57.
Tho a man of wast estat … yet he keips sick a low saile that he wil not spend the thrid of his rent 1695 Cochran-Patrick Coinage II 245.
Such a particular tryall would consume a vast dale of tyme and is almost imparciable
