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.
EDGE, n., v. Used as in Eng. and also in the following phrs. and combs.:
1. Phrs.: (1) at (in) the edge o' a time, from time to time, occasionally (Bnff.2 1942); (2) at, i', (up)on (the) edge o', almost, very nearly, on the verge of (n.Sc. 1808 Jam. s.v. gloamin), also found in midl. Eng. and U.S. dials.; cf. e'ning edge (Sc. 1718 Ramsay Chr. Kirk iii. x. in Poems (1721)); (3) to edge hame, to proceed slowly on one's homeward journey (Sh., Abd., Ags., Slg., m.Lth., Kcb., Uls. 1950).(1) Sh. 1836 Gentleman's Mag. II. 593:
Geegarin means shiftin aboot fre ples ta ples in “da eage o' a tyme.”Sh. 1898 W. F. Clark Northern Gleams 90–91:
He wid slip oot a wird at da edge o' a time 'at wis harley ta be luekid for i' da mooth o' a Scotchman.(2) Ayr. 1785 Burns Second Ep. J. Lapraik i.:
This hour on e'enin's edge I take.Abd. 1851 W. Anderson Rhymes, etc. 50:
I' the edge o' the gloamin', some hunners wad meet At the tap o' the Broadgate, and block up the street, An' pass aff the time till the evening grew dark.Abd. 1875 G. Macdonald Malcolm I. i.:
She was upo' the edge o' aucht an' thirty.Lnk. 1881 D. Thomson Musings 58:
I cam' in at edge o' nicht, My droukit duds tae dry.Uls. 1948 D. G. Waring Not Quite So Black 197:
Thus it was on the edge of dark that he returned to the house.(3) Abd. 1873 J. Ogg Willy Waly 17:
The droothy cronies will be edgin' hame.
2. Combs.: (1) edge coals, (see quot.); (2) edge seam, = (1), a seam of coal lying at a steeper angle than 1 in 1 (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 26); a specific name for the west outcrops in Midlothian (Edb.6 1944); (3) (h)edge-grow, v., (see quot.); also in Eng. dial.(1) m.Lth. 1852 H. Miller Schools and Schoolm. (1860) 153:
There were at this time several collier villages in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, which have since disappeared. They were situated on what were called the “edge-coals”, — those steep seams of the Mid-Lothian Coal Basin which, lying low in the system, have got a more vertical tilt against the trap eminences of the south and west than the upper seams in the middle of the field.(2) Sc. 1805 R. Forsyth Beauties Scotl. I. 269:
The strata . . . receive the appellation of edge seams, from their descending, or almost upright position in the earth.(3) Sc. 1800 Farmer's Mag. I. 364:
I delayed cutting it till the middle of October; by which time it was so much edge-grown, or full of after shoots, that it must soon have rotted on the ground.Dmf. 1812 W. Singer Agric. Dmf. 191:
When the stalks are not only laid down, but the texture partly broken, and no possibility left of the grain receiving further nourishment, what is called edge, or hedge-growing, begins, the plants immediately sending up new green shoots.
