Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1807-1934, 1990-2000
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BLEEZE, Blaze, v.2 [For phonetics, see Bleeze, v.1]
1. To calumniate. This sense of blaze given as obs. in Eng. in N.E.D.Rnf. 1807 R. Tannahill Poems and Songs 84:
I truly hate the dirty gait That mony a body tak's, Wha fraise ane syne blaze ane As soon's they turn their backs.
2. “To boast, brag” (Abd.2, Fif.1 1934).Sc. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxvi.:
And ye'll specially understand that ye're no to be bleezing and blasting about your master's name or mine.Edb. 1898 J. Baillie Walter Crighton xii.:
He's aye blazing about what he can dae on the bar at the pend gate.
ppl.adj. bleezing, blazing, bragging; used also with intensive force.Sc. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet xi.:
I saw him at Culloden when all was lost, doing more than twenty of these bleezing braggarts.Edb. [1845] W. Steven Hist. Geo. Heriot's Hospital (ed. F. W. Bedford 1859) 346:
He is a blazing chield; aye blasting and blawing about his rich uncles and aunties.
3. To be very drunk. Found only in ppl.adjs. bleezed, bleezin'.Sc. 1808 Jam.:
Bleezed signifies the state of one on whom intoxicating liquor begins to operate.Abd.(D) 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb 143:
That vera nicht he came hame fae the dominie's bleezin' — he's takin' sair to the drink.Ags.1 1934Ags. 1990 Raymond Vettese in Hamish Whyte and Janice Galloway New Writing Scotland 8: The Day I Met the Queen Mother 142:
Th'ae thing he wanted, he said, wis mair life.
That, ay, and mair whisky.
Maist nichts he'd stottert hame bleezin ... em.Sc. 2000 James Robertson The Fanatic 220:
'Oh, excuse me. So it's awright when I'm no in the mood, when you come in bleezin frae the pub or wantin a mantel-piece tae greet on, ony oor o the nicht or day, ... '
Phr.: bleezin'-fou, uproariously drunk. Gen.Sc. Cf. bletherin' fou s.v. Blether, v.Bch. 1928 (per Abd.15):
He wis bleezin'-fou at the roup.
4. Phrases: (1) to bleeze awa(y), to brag, exaggerate, declaim; (2) to bleeze out, to declaim.(1) Sc. 1821 Scott Pirate (1822) v.:
Ye had mair need — to give the young lad dry clothes — than to sit there bleezing away with your long tales.Bnff.2 1934Fif. 1864 W. D. Latto Tammas Bodkin (1868) xxxv:
In a jiffey the fairntickled damsel, wha happened to be in oor band-win, was ower the end-rig, bruindin' an' bleezin' awa juist as if naething could haud her againEdb. 1894 P. H. Hunter J. Inwick iii.:
Syne Geordie begoud to bleeze awa aboot their man, what a deevil he was amang the doctrines, an' what terrible gran' sermons he gied them.(2) Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality vii.:
But what ken I if the cause is gude or no . . . for a' ye bleeze out sae muckle doctrine about it?
