Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1877-1928
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]
FICKLIE, adj. Also fickly, fickley, fiklie. Puzzling, perplexing (Lth. 1808 Jam.); difficult, tricky (Fif., m.Lth. 1951).Sh. 1877 G. Stewart Fireside Tales 27:
Der's mony fiklie wirds i' da Bible dat I can mak bit little o'.Hdg. 1885 "S. Mucklebackit" Rural Rhymes 39:
An' hoo he killed them a' sae quickly To a' that saw't was problem fickley.Fif. 1887 "S. Tytler" Logie Town III. i.:
After a dead pause she would wisely give notice of breakers ahead by shouting to her mistress, "a fickly word, mistress."Per. 1910 W. Blair Kildermoch 104:
Hoo it cam' into Ringan's head when he was in the middle o' the water to put such fickly questions, gude kens.Lth. 1928 S. A. Robertson With Double Tongue 25:
When it's red wi' Lammas spate crossin may be mair ficklie.
You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Ficklie adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 18 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/ficklie>
