Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

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.

BATTS, BATS, n. Used in pl.

1. Disease in animals, esp. horses.Sc. 1825 Jam.²:
Bats. The disease in horses, called in Eng. Bots, and caused by small worms.Edb. 1828 D. M. Moir Mansie Wauch (1837) xvii.:
I asked him about . . . curing the sturdie, and the snifters and the batts, and such like.Ayr. 1900 “G. Douglas” House w. the G. Shutters (1901) xv.:
He was lying deid in the loose-box. The batts — it's like.Ayr. 1913 J. Service Memorables of Robin Cummell xii.:
[He] could have telt ye what was guid for the sturdy or the batts.

2. Colic in human beings.Sc. 1717 Ramsay Poems 30:
She ne'er ran sour Jute [liquor], because It gee's the Batts.Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality viii.:
I ne'er gat ony gude by his doctrine, as ye ca't, but a gude fit o' the batts wi' sitting amang the wat moss-hags for four hours at a yoking.w.Sc. 1825 Jam.²; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. 50; Slk. 1825 Jam.²:
Bats. The colic.

3. (See quot.)w.Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. 50:
Batts. A hen-sickness, causing trembling, and often fatal.