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.
Quotation dates: 1700, 1820, 1894-1928
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BROKEN, ppl.adj. Now only arch.
1. Used chiefly in the Highland and Border districts, esp. in 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
(1) Applied to a man outlawed for some crime or to one who had no feudal protector and had taken to a lawless life, hence a cattle-lifter. Gen. in phr. broken men.Sc. 1700 Hist. Papers Jacobite Period (New Spalding Club 1895) I. 19:
Full power . . . to the Laird of Achintoul to aprehend all such loose and broken men.Per. 1928 A. Stewart Highland Parish viii.:
Freebooters and cattle-lifters — "broken men" as they were called.Arg. 1901 N. Munro Doom Castle i.:
He could not guess that the gentry in the wood behind him had taken a fancy to his horse, that they were broken men (as the phrase of the country put it), and that when he had passed them at the cataract . . . they had promptly put a valuation upon himself and his possessions.
(2) Applied also to a clan.Sc. [1820] Scott Abbot (1831) xxxiv., Note:
A broken clan was one who had no chief able to find security for their good behaviour — a clan of outlaws.
2. Used also in a wider sense to indicate a ruined person, a bankrupt, or one in the direst poverty. Colloq. Eng. broke. Gen.Sc.Ags. 1894 "F. Mackenzie" in People's Friend (9 April) 235/2:
"Woman! The smith is broken . . ." "Bankrupt, he means, mother"
