Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1771-1860, 1936
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0]
CURLIEWURLIE, CURLY-WURLIE, n.
1. An elaborately carved ornamentation in stone.Sc. a.1772 W. Wilkie in J. G. Lockhart Life of Scott (1837) V. ii.:
I thought the beauty of architecture had consisted in curly-wurlies, but now I find it consists in symmetry and proportion.Sc. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xix.:
Ah! it's a brave kirk — nane o' yere whigmaleeries and curliewurlies and open-steek hems about it — a' solid, weel-jointed mason-wark.
2. = Curly-murly, q.v.Sc. 1936 A. Fleming Christina Strang v.:
Lilias produced a bag of sweets — the sugared caraway seeds or "curly-wurlies."
3. A trill or run in vocal music, coloratura singing. Ags. 1860 A. Whamond James Tacket 63:
They introduce their new fangled curly wurlies, more for the purpose of showing the dexterous use they can make of their own vocal organs.
You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Curliewurlie n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/curliewurlie>
