Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
BLEED, v. Of grain: to yield good results when threshed; of growing things in general: to yield a good crop. Still in gen. use amongst farmers.Sc. 1825 Jam.2:
The aits dinnae bleed weel the year, but the beer bleeds weel.Abd.9, Slg.3 1934:
The aits is bleedin' fine, aboot aucht quarters tae the awcre.e.Lth. 1794 G. Buchan-Hepburn Gen. View Agric. e. Lth. 69:
It was found . . . that these wheats . . . did not bleed in corn, in proportion to their appearance and bulk.Arg.(D) 1882 Argyllshire Herald (3 June):
Oor bitatoes [sic] didna bleed weel at aa this year or fernyear: they was juist a lock scrajacks, so they war. [Now obs. in s.Arg. (Arg.1 1934).]Ayr.4 1928:
The crap has bled weel.
Hence bleeder, n., “a term applied to grain according to its degree of productiveness when thrashed; as, ‘a guid bleeder,' ‘an ill bleeder'” (w.Sc. 1825 Jam.2).
[We do not find this meaning either for O.Sc. blede, bleid, or for O.E. blēdan. It appears first in Eng. dial. in quot. dated 1641, H. Best Farm Bks. (1856) (N.E.D.). This peculiar meaning would seem to make prob. deriv. of blood, bleed, from the same root as O.E. blōwan, to blow, to bloom, suggested both in N.E.D. and Un. Eng. Dict.]
