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.
Quotation dates: 1717, 1791-1828, 1900-1923
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BATTS, BATS, n. Used in pl. Also bauts the colic. [bǫts Lth.]
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.Edb. 1791 J. Learmont Poems 173:
An' fock wad hae a freer wame O bauts sae rusky.w.Sc. 1825 Jam.2:
Bats. The colic.Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. 50:
Batts. The colic.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.
