Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
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.
CHATTERY, adj. Stony, hard (Bnff.2 1939). Cf. Yks. dial. chattery, stony, pebbly (E.D.D.).ne.Sc. 1952 John R. Allan North-East Lowlands of Scotland (1974) 25:
What does the boy in the turnip field get there, as he hangs on to a swede with one hand and his cap with the other against the force of a nor-west gale? There must be a something in those chattery fields.Peb. 1845 Stat. Acc.2 III. 141–142:
It was a moss soil . . . in which the cattle . . . used often to be bogged. . . . Lying upon a bottom of chattery rock, no ditch could confine the water.
