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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

†GRAFEL, v. To struggle, flounder about. Cf. Eng. dial. grapple, id.Sc. 1860 E. B. Ramsay Reminisc. 21:
(Woman to David Hume who had fallen into a swamp) — “Ye maun repeat the Lord's Prayer and the creed, or faith I'll let ye grafel there as I fand ye.”

[Grafle, to grapple, struggle, seems to occur c.1650 in O.Sc. as the true reading in the Memoirs of J. Spottiswoode, Bishop of Clogher, where the editions read grasled (Boswell, 1811, p. 22) and grafted (Spottiswoode Misc., 1844, I. 114).]

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