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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.

CAIRT, CAIRD, CARTE, Cart, Cairte, n.² Also cerd. Sc. forms of Eng. card. The Eng. form is illustrated only in a phrase peculiar to Sc. [kert, ke:rd, + ɛ]

1. A playing card. Gen. in pl., meaning a pack of cards or a game of cards (often used with definite article in this latter sense). Also fig. Gen.Sc.Sc. 1715 Household Bk. Lady Grisell Baillie (S.H.S. 1911) 35:
To lose at Carts 0. 9. 0.Mry.(D) 1897 J. Mackinnon Braefoot Sk. viii.:
Sometimes I have seen us have a hand at the “cairts,” too.Bnff. 1728 in W. Cramond Annals of Banff (1891) I. 198–199:
Discharged . . . from playing at cairds and dyce.Abd. 1991 George Bruce in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 23:
And upon heich the pillars o Society: plc,
wha haud the cairts, them a', and unnerneath discairds.wm.Sc. 1985 Liz Lochhead Tartuffe 27:
The day's nae day tae mak' ye a mairrit wummin.
An' here's yir trump-cerd, unless ye say "I do",
Nae man oan earth can be yokit tae you.Ayr. 1799 Burns Holy Willie's Prayer (Cent. ed.) xi.:
Lord, mind Gau'n Hamilton's deserts: He drinks, an' swears, an' plays at cartes.Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr Duguid 74:
There was a coming and gaun aboot the place of ne'er-do-well dyvours and licht limmers who leeved at hack and manger, birling for a constancy at the wine and the cairtes.

Hence †(1) cairder, a player of cards; (2) cairtin, n., card-playing (Bnff.², Abd.⁹ 1938). Also used attrib.(1) Bnff. 1705 in J. Grant Records County Bnff. (1922) 296:
He could keep no order in the school . . . and was a habitual drunkard and cairder.(2) Bnff.(D) 1924 “Knoweheid” in Swatches o' Hamespun 17:
Hae yer pairty, bit I'se hae mine later on. Gin it hid been a cairtin foy, or a nicht at the bannocks an' sowans, I'da been fair on for't.Abd.(D) 1913 C. Murray Hamewith 46:
Syne O for a nicht, ae lang forenicht, Ower the dambrod spent or cairtin'.

Phrase: up b(y) cairts, — carts, — cards, an expression originally used in the game of catch-the-ten (see Catch, v., 2 (7)), in which the number of cards (in tricks taken) above the number originally dealt out to the player count a point each. A player who was “up by cairts” was therefore winning. Hence extended to mean “up in the world,” “in an exalted position.” Also up the cairts, a corruption of the orig. phrase.Abd. 1713–1778 Anon. Jamie Fleeman (1893) v.:
The story upon which a very common byword is founded, “Hanging in the weather-cock, like Fleeman's mare,” or, “Up by carts, like Fleeman's mare,” is nearly the same as one recorded in the work of Munchausen. Being in Aberdeen ae snawy night, he said he tethered his mare to the lum head, as he thought; but a thaw having come during the night, he in the morning found the poor beast hanging frae the steeple of the tolbooth. “Ay, faith!” quoth Fleeman, viewing her, “ye're up by carts this morning!”Abd.(D) 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb xix.:
Says she, “Dawvid was up b' cairts the streen, wusnin' he?” “But fan was Dawvid onything else wi' his tale?” says I.Abd.⁹ 1938:
The orra man wis fairly up by cairts the day drivin' the laird's wagonette.Bch. 1929 (per Abd.¹):
Wyte ye still or I get rankit an' inta thae gran' habiliments . . . an' I'se be up the cairts like Fleeman's meer.Ags. 1896 Arbroath Guide (2 May) 3/6:
To tell them dootless that he thocht himsel' up by cards that day.

2. A photograph (Sh.(D) 1922 J. Inkster Mansie's Röd 22; Abd.², Ags.¹, Slg.³, Fif.¹⁰ 1938).Lth. 1925 C. P. Slater Marget Pow 23–24:
I never had my caird done but once, at Portobella on the Queen's Birthday; it was like, all except the face.