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: 1711-1753, 1829-1882
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EXPISCATE, v. To elucidate, lay bare, disclose (Sc. 1808 Jam.). Now rare.Sc. 1721 R. Wodrow Sufferings I. 511:
That the Reader may have some View of this wicked and inhumane Method of expiscating Matters by Torture, peculiar to this Time, I shall give as short an Abstract of this Account as I can.Ayr. 1830 Galt Lawrie Todd iii. xii.:
I just propounded the project that I might expiscate some kind of satisfaction to my curiosity.
Hence (1) expiscation, n., elucidation, investigation, lit. a fishing out; (2) expiscator, n., one who expiscates, an investigator; (3) expiscatory, adj., tending to expiscate or “fish out”.(1) Sc. a.1712 Fountainhall Decisions (1759) I. 292:
The assizers exceeded their duty in offering to stop this expiscation . . . and they gave occasion to an irregular and tumultuary noise that was raised in the Court.Sc. 1753 Scots Mag. (July) 364:
There should be the fullest expiscation into the truth or falsity of these deeds.(2) Sc. 1882 J. Brown Horae Subsecivae 320:
These mighty expiseators and exploders of myths.(3) Sc. 1829 Blackwood's Mag. (Oct.) 586:
I was moved thereunto by an expiscatory curiosity.Sc. 1837 T. Carlyle Critical and Misc. Essays (1840) V. 90:
By . . . expiscatory questions . . . this most involute of Lies is finally winded off.
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"Expiscate v.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 6 Apr 2026 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/expiscate>
