Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
ASTRICT, v. To bind legally.Sc. c.1740 in H. G. Graham Soc. Life 18th Cent. (1928) I. 163:
Almost all the land was “thirlled” or “astricted” to particular mills on the estate by old feudal rights. Every particle of grain must be taken to these mills except the seed corn.Abd. 1877 W. Alexander North. Rural Life 18th Cent. 146:
One mill at least, and not unfrequently several, were erected in each barony or lairdship, all the lands of the barony or lairdship being astricted or “thirled” thereto forming the mill “sucken.”Ags. 1721 Marriage Contract (per Fif.1):
The Miln of Balgavie, astricted multures, sequells and knaveship of the samen.e.Lth. 1794 G. B. Hepburn Agric. of East Lothian 107–108:
It seems also natural, that a person who possessed a stream of water upon his estate, should be invited by his neighbours to be at the expence of erecting a mill upon this stream; and that they, on the other hand, should thirle, that is, astrict and bind their lands, in all time coming, to use and frequent this mill with their corns, and to pay a certain proportion of the meal, (according to the universal mode then practised, of paying in kind) for the grinding of it.
