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.
†CHUCKLE, v.1 A term used in curling: “to make a succession of in-wicks up a port [open way] to a certain object” (Ayr. 1831 Blackwood Mag. XXX. 971).
[Prob. from Eng. chuckle, to laugh, to cluck or cackle as a hen. The application to curling may have arisen from the succession of sounds made when the moving stone cannoned into the others.]
