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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1934 (SND Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BARKING AND FLEEING, v. Spending one's property in a prodigal way; on the verge of ruin.Sc. 1808 Jam.:
Barking and Fleeing. It has been supposed that this contains an allusion to the barking of dogs, and the flight of birds, in consequence of the alarm given. [The Fif. quot. seems to confirm this explanation but see etym. note.]Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality viii.:
O, the lands of Milnwood! . . . that have been in the name of Morton twa hundred years! . . . They are barking and fleeing, outfield and infield, haugh and holme!Sc. 1824 Scott St Ronan's Well I. x.:
“The last furrows [of the country] seem to be flying.” “Fleeing!” said the writer, “they are barking and fleeing baith.”Fif. 1825 Jam.2:
He's hunting and hawking, but he'll soon be barking and fleeing.Fif.6 1933:
Barking and Fleeing. It occurs to me that “Hunting and Hawking” may have some connection with the hunting seat of the Stewart Kings at Falkland, and possibly the part the Fife lairds took in the sports in which these Kings set so constant an example. Some of them probably ruined themselves in connection with it.

[Jam., on the authority of Ihre, the Swedish philologist of the 18th cent., gives Sw. barka, to fly, to run quickly. Ekw. writes “The Sw. verb barka is commonly used all over Sweden in educated and dialectal speech. It means ‘to rush, dash' and the like, and is also used in impersonal phrases such as det barkar åt skogen, lit. ‘it rushes to the wood' but actually ‘things are turning out badly, the end will be bad' or the like. The word seems to be found from the middle of the 18th cent., but is no doubt earlier.” Note that flee in Sc. may mean either to “rush away in order to escape” or “to fly.”]

Barking And Fleeing v.

1862

snd

Y