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.
Quotation dates: <1700, 1700, 1788, 1845-1904
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FUDDLE, v. Sc. usages:
1. As in Eng., to get drunk. Sc. comb. †fuddling-cap, see quot.Edb. 1788 G. Wilson Masonic Songs 95 Note:
Formerly, when journeymen shoemakers went on the ramble, they wore the best stripped worsted caps they used to sit at work with, and it was called the Fuddling-cap.
†2. tr. To get drunk on, to drink the price or proceeds of. Also to spend (time) in drinking.Abd. 1845 P. Still Cottar's Sunday 48:
[He] aften left his hame to fuddle Days, an' weeks, an' months awa.Edb. 1851 A. Maclagan Sketches 182:
Ye're like a house without its thack, An' yet ye'll fuddle ilka plack!Gsw. 1868 J. Young Poems 79:
The vera coals ye've ta'en, Mary, An' fuddl't them aff haun.Sc. 1904 in R. Ford Vagabond Songs 217:
They hangit their minister, droon'd their precentor, Dang doun the steeple, and fuddled the bell.
†3. To crumple, crush.Sc. 1696 True Relation of an Apparition in Rerrick 10:
She . . . found seven small bones . . . all closed in a piece of Old fuddled Paper.
