Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
GRIPPIE, adj. Also gruppy, -ie, grippy. Close-fisted, avaricious, greedy, mean; inclined to sharp practice (Sc. 1808 Jam.). Gen.Sc. Also in n.Eng. dial. Sometimes used substantively. [′grɪpe, ′grʌpe]Sc. 1778 Session Papers, Horne v. Wilson (10 March) 33:
Mr Wilson showed always great attention to his own interest, and was remarkably grippy.Ayr. 1822 Galt Provost xliii.:
Standing now clear and free of the world, I had less incitement to be so grippy.Edb. 1844 J. Ballantine Miller xvi.:
That auld grippy gets his work completed for half its value.wm.Sc. 1868 Laird of Logan 498:
Drivin' hard bargains, for cash wi' the needy, O' gifts come frae wham they may, grippy and greedy.Lth. 1871 T. Logan Poems 21:
A shrewd pawkie carle, but grippy a wee, Yet no a bad mortal when in a guid key.Abd. 1875 W. Alexander My Ain Folk 151:
They've been a grippie, wily set, for mony a year an' day.Per. 1910 W. Blair Kildermoch 99:
Folk wondered at his takin' Effie, wha was a roch-lookin', ill-faured body, but gruppy wi' bawbees.Dmf. 1921 J. L. Waugh Heroes 40:
But when he got aulder he got grippy, ay, so terribly grippy, that his name was . . . a byword in the parish for meanness.Ags. 1929 Holyrood (W. H. Hamilton) 175:
The chink o' the coin is sweet tae the gruppy.Abd. 1990 Stanley Robertson Fish-Hooses (1992) 99:
He was a rather grippy kind of chiel and very much intae the wyes of the scaldie folk. Fif. 1991 Tom Hubbard in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 142:
The ink fae a pen faas bluid upon an aix,
Dings doun some grippy carline (then forby
Her daftie sister, there at the wrang time).
Hence grippiness, meanness, avarice. Gen.Sc. Sc. 1882 Athenaeum (21 Jan.) 88:
The "grippiness" that may have characterized the earlier lairds. e.Lth. 1895 Life & Work XVII. 213:
There was nae gruppiness about him than.
