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.
Quotation dates: 1900
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†GLENDER, n. In combs.: 1. glendergait, = glender-gane, by formal confusion with glendrie gaits below; 2. glender-gane, adj., “applied to one who is in a declining state of health, in bad circumstances as to his worldly affairs, or who has fallen into immoral habits” (Per., Lth. 1808 Jam.); 3. glender-gear, n., “ill-gotten substance” (Fif. 1825 Jam.). 1 Slk. c.1900 A. J. B. Paterson Mist from Yarrow 35, 112:
She lookit to me to be gaun a' glendergait. . . . The man maun be clean glendergait.
Hence glendrie, adj., in n.phr. glendrie gaits, a fool's errand: “one may be said to be sent glendrie gaits, when there is as little hope of success, as of recovery to a horse under the glanders, or to one far gone in a decline” (Fif. 1825 Jam.).
[Dissimilated form of Glengore, q.v., used in a gen. sense to indicate a bad condition.]You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Glender n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 1 Apr 2026 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/glender>
