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.
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”
