Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

FELT, n.¹ Sc. usages of Eng. felt, the material.

†1. “A thickly matted mass of any fibrous substance” (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 45). Ppl.adj. feltit (up), matted (Ib.).Ib.:
The lan's a' ae felt o' weeds. That steer hiz a richt felt o' hair.

2. Specif.: (1) worn-out arable pasture mostly consisting of fine bent-grass, Agrostis vulgaris (Per.⁴ 1950). Hence adj. felty, made of this grass, and comb. felty-clod, see quot.; †(2) the creeping wheat-grass, couch-grass, Triticum repens.(1) Per. 1845 C. Spence Poems (1898) 2:
Linn-ma-Gray, high on thy crest The wag-tail builds her felty nest.Bwk. 1853 G. Johnston Botany E. Borders 211:
A[grostis] Alba. . . . In moory soil this grass forms a matted turf to the exclusion of other grasses, much deprecated by farmers under the term of the Moor-delf-clod, or Felty-clod.(2) Slg. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XI. 374:
Over-run with the creeping wheat-grass, known by the vulgar name of felt or pirl-grass.Rnf. 1812 J. Wilson Agric. Rnf. 137:
The weeds which abound in corn fields, are . . . couch grass, or felt, (triticum repens).