Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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About this entry:
First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1772-1824, 1930-1932
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BACK-DOOR-TROT(T), n.
1. Diarrhœa.Sc. 1772 Weekly Mag. (Oct. 1) 31:
It is exactly a good Scots back-door trot, arising from new comers eating the leaves of trees boiled in sea-water, which is the broth of that country.Bnff.2 1930; Slg.1 1932:
It sae happ'nt that Sandy wis ill wi' th' back-door-trot at that time.Peb. 1793 R. D. C. Brown Comic Poems (1817) 121:
When hunger sent them scampering back Soon at the back-door-trot.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 37:
Back-door-trot. The diarrhœa, those with the body in a lax state, are said to have the back-door-trot.
2. fig.Ayr. 1789 D. Sillar Poems 57:
I fear they've [letters] tane the back-door trott An' miss'd the road.
