A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1990 (DOST Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
(Rabill,) Rab(b)le, v. [e.m.E. rabble drive (out of town) by means of a rabble (1644), f., or f. as Rabil(l n. Also in the later dial. as rable, raible.] tr. To attack (a clergyman) by means of a rabble or mob in order to drive him from (out of) his charge.Applied, spec., to the attacks made by bands of Presbyterians on the Episcopalian clergy following upon the Revolution settlement of 1688–9.1681 Hector Renfrewshire Rec. I 17.
[The people … without waiting for the decision of the legislators] rabbled [out of their … livings, upwards of 200 clergymen] 1690 Account Late Establishment Presbyterian Government 58.
Those who had been removed (alias rabbled) Ib. 60.
It was just neither more nor less than rabbled … they were violently thrust from their churches by the rabble 1692 Jervise Epitaphs & Inscriptions I 123/2.
Mr. Robert … was rabled out of his own church 1692 Pitcairne Assembly i iii 22.
I have done … good service to this honourable judicatory … by ruining and rabbling the curates
b. To set upon in numbers; to mob. —1694 Reg. Privy C. (3 Oct.) in R. Chambers Domestic Annals of Scotland (1861) III 103.]
[Students … in the custom of offering affronts to the elders by … offering to rabble them when they walk on the streets
