Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 2000 (DOST Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

S(c)hipful(l, Shipeful, Schippill, Ship'l, n. [ME and e.m.E. scipful (c1205), sipfol (c1275); S(c)hip n. For the reduced form schippill, cf. Cartill n. and Hantill n., which are prob. examples of the same phonological development.] As much, or as many, as a ship will hold; a shipful. Also fig.(a) 1501 Treas. Acc. II 108.
Giffin to ane man to pas to Montros to se ane schipfull of tymmyr that com in thare 1665–7 Lauder Jrnl. 98.
The Spaniards … carried over [to America] whole shipeful of mastives which they hunted the naked Indians with(b) 1512 Treas. Acc. IV 305.
Ane schippill of gret tymmer and utheris necessaris … for the kingis schippis and biggein(c) c1616 Hume Orthog. 23.
A ship'l of fooles, for a ship ful of foolesproverb. a1598 Ferg. Prov. MS No. 653.
He hes mo wyls nor wold droune a shipful of geisfig. 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1671) 124.
One hour of this labour is worth a shipfull of world's drunken and muddy joy