Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1780-1818
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DECLARATION, n. Sc. law: “m criminal proceedings, the account which a prisoner, who has been apprehended on suspicion of having committed a crime, gives of himself on his examination [and] is taken down in writing” (Sc. 1890 Bell Dict. Law Scot. 289); “now rarely made” (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 27).Sc. 1780 D. Hume Trial for Crimes (1800) I. 127:
The prisoner's declaration must . . . be taken down . . . in writing; and must be read over to the prisoner; and be signed by him.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xxiii.:
It . . . usually happens that these declarations become the means of condemning the accused, as it were, out of their own mouths.
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"Declaration n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 13 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/declaration>
