Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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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.
GLEDGE, v., n. Also ¶gledsh.
I. v. To give a sidelong glance, to squint (Fif. 1808 Jam.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.); “to look cunningly and slily on one side, laughing at the same time in one's sleeve; to leer” (Dmf., Rxb. 1825 Jam.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Peb. 1954); “to hang about thief-like” (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 230), to spy; comb. gledging-e'ed, squinting. Rxb. 1811 A. Scott Poems 98:
. . . she blush'd and gledgin slee, Flang aye the tither sweetest smile on me.Sc. 1819 Scott Bride of Lamm. xxvi.:
Fremd servants, like that chield Lockhard, to be gledging and gleeing about, and looking upon the wrang side of ane's housekeeping.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 84:
To step about amang the starns, and see A thousan' queer things wi' her gledgin' e'e.Dmf. 1826 A. Cunningham Paul Jones I. xii.:
A wee gledging-e'ed emissary.Dmf. 1869 A. C. Gibson Folk-Speech of Cumberland 123:
An' gledging oot the roads aboot or the fair had well begun, We'd watch the braw, braw lasses a' pu' on their hose an' shune.Ags. 1894 J. B. Salmond B. Bowden (1922) xii.:
I cud see by the smirk on his face an' the wey he was gledshin' at me, that he was michty weel pleas'd wi' himsel'.
Deriv. n. gledger, one who gives sidelong glances.Slk. 1827 Hogg Shep. Cal. (1874) ix.:
Known by the name of Gibby Gledger, from the circumstance of his being always looking slily after them [pretty girls].
II. n. 1. A sidelong glance (Borders 1825 Jam.; Peb. 1954).Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality xxxviii.:
When I spake o' the brose, ye ken, he didna just laugh . . . but he gae a gledge wi' his e'e that I kenn'd he took up what I said.
2. A glance, a transient view, a “squint” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.).Lnk. 1818 A. Fordyce Country Wedding 25:
Yes, it is so — I had a parting gledge Of one fond couple stealing down yon hedge.Lth. 1825 Jam.:
I gat a gledge o' him.Rxb. 1925 E. C. Smith Mang Howes 20:
Yeh loonge owre the brig an . . . a gledge doon inti the Rule as it ran rowlin ti link in wui Teiot.
