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.
Quotation dates: 1500-1640, 1696
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Remis(s, adj. Also: -mys, -mise, -mysse. [Late ME and e.m.E. remys (Lydgate), -mysse and -misse (c1450), L. remiss-, p.p. stem of remittere Remit(t v.]
1. Of persons: Negligent; slack; careless (as to, or in the performance of, duties). 1500 Ayr Friars Pr. Chart. 67.
And geif it sall happin the said priour and convent … to be negligent remis or slewthfull 1567–8 Reg. Privy C. I 610.
The personis … that beis fund remysse or negligent in the premissis 1576 Ib. II 556. 1594 Acts IV 63/1.
Incace the saidis presbiteries beis fund remise 1640 Kirkcudbr. Min. Bk. 93.
Onie persone … who shall be … remise in peyment 1696 Hector Renfrewshire Rec. I 49.
2. Of a quality: Weak, defective. 1533 Boece 295b.
Gif Saxouns has stout, and ȝe remys, corage [etc.]
3. Of reins: Slack, loose. 1623 James VI in Rushworth Hist. Coll. (1659) I 116.
For it is a good horse-man's part not always to use his spurs and keep strait the reins, but sometimes to use the spurs and suffer the reins more remiss
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"Remis adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/remiss>
