Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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About this entry:
First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1815-1847, 1899-1958
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GLASS, n., v. For Sc. forms, see Gless.
Sc. usages:
I. n. 1. In combs. ¶(1) glass-breaker, a hard drinker, a tippler; †(2) glass-chack, v., of a window: to make a check in a sash, to fit it for receiving the glass (Sc. 1825 Jam.). Cf. Chack, n.2; (3) glass fluke, the megrim, Lepidorhombus whiff-iagonis (Abd. 1930 Fishery Board Gl.); †(4) glass-yolk, a round, opaque and radiated crystallization found in window-glass which has been cooled too slowly. See Yolk.(1) Sc. 1815 Scott Guy M. xlv.:
I think we had better lie down, Captain, if ye're no agreeable to another cheerer. But troth, ye're nae glass-breaker; and neither am I.(4) Sc. 1847 Scotsman (3 July):
It is thought probable that a glass-yolk in the skylight of the garret where the fire started, acting as a lens, had ignited the wool in the garret storey.
2. In phr. casting the glass(es) (Ork.5, Cai.7 1954), dropping glasses, reading the glass, a method of fortune-telling formerly in vogue on Fastern's Een and Halloween (see Hallow, n.2), see quots.Sc. 1835 H. Miller Scenes & Leg. 116:
The female, whose future fortunes are to be disclosed . . . lays her hand on the glass's mouth, and holds it there for the space of about a minute. In that time the heavier parts of the [egg-] white settle to the bottom, while the lighter shoot up into the water . . . into a variety of fantastic shapes . . . A resemblance is next traced, which is termed reading the glass, between the images displayed in it and some objects of either art or nature; and these are deemed to constitute a hieroglyphic of the person's future fortunes.Sh. 1899 J. Spence Folk-Lore 190:
This [dropping glasses] was performed by dropping a small portion of the white of an egg into a glass of water. The forms assumed prognosticated the future in matters of love, fortune and death.
3. A measure of spirits (see quot.). Slk. 1920 P. Sulley In Our Burgh 34:
A glass of spirits in Scotland is an imperial measure, the half of a gill, the eighth of a pint. The alternative is a nip, the half of a glass.
II. v. 1. To give a smooth, glossy surface to something. Cf. Glaze, v.Peb. 1815 in A. Pennecuik Works 89:
The roof is first covered with divots . . . laid on . . . with that end only exposed which hath received a knead or glassing by the first entry of the paring spade.
2. To spy with a telescope or binoculars.Ags. 1958 C. Gibson Highl. Deer Stalker 100:
They had glassed a herd in a grassy hollow near the summit of Driesh.
