Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1960 (SND Vol. V). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1821-1908
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]
HITCH, v., n. Also hich (Abd. 1826 D. Anderson Poems 59). Sc. usages:
I. v. intr. To hobble, to walk with a limp; to hop (Dmf.3 c.1920; m.Lth. 1957). Also used fig.Sc. 1821 Blackwood's Mag. (May) 159:
Hitching slowly, but quite resolutely, out at the church-door.ne.Sc. 1836 J. Grant Tales (1869) 151:
I saw ye hitchin and hirplin, as tho' ye had been a cripple.Sc. a.1844 Wilson's Tales of the Borders (1858) XV. 116:
I . . . hitched away towards the tap o' the Briock.Hdg. 1885 J. Lumsden Rhymes & Sk. 241:
For, strange to say, Old Madam, the World, goes jowling and hitching along in her old way.Kcd. 1908 D. Grant Lays 114:
Owre the hill he hitch't an' hirplet.
II. n. 1. A limp in walking (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.). Obs. in Eng. since 1750.
2. The little hop made in playing hop-scotch (Abd., m.Lth. 1957). Hence deriv. hitchy in combs. hitchy-bay, hitchy-hobbles (Abd. 1910–57 M. M. Stewart), the game of hop-scotch. Cf. n.Eng. hitchey-beds, Suf. hitch-hob, id.Slk. 1875 Border Treasury (1 May) 459:
In the next street where some other little girls were playing at “hitchy-bay”.
Phr. hitch and kick, a feat in a jumping competition (see quot.) (Ayr. 1975). Rxb. 1842 W. Howitt Visits to Remark. Places II. 567:
The Hitch-and-Kick. A pole was . . . set down . . . having a large ring . . . upon this ring was laid a sort of . . . tambourine. . . . The thing required of the contenders was to take a short run, give a little hop, or what they call a hitch, then spring up, and with the same foot from which they spring kick off the tambourine, alight again on the same foot, and give another little hop or hitch.
