Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1702-1824, 1910-1999
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INGINE, n. Also, in senses 1., 2. and 3., injine, -gyne, -jain; en-; in sense 4., ingin, -jin. Sc. forms of Eng. engine. [Orig. in all senses pronounced ɪn′dʒəin, but now in sense 4., ′ɪndʒɪn, Abd. + ′ɪndʒəin]
‡1. Natural cleverness, ability, wit, genius, ingenuity (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Cai., Kcd. 1958).Sc. 1702 Burgh Rec. Gsw. (1908) 359:
His airt, ingyne and fittednes for keeping of the saids clocks and chimns.Abd. 1710 Burgh Rec. Abd. (1872) II. 342:
That non enter to the said grammar schooll befor they be nyn years of age, unless they be of a large capacity and engyne.Sc. 1728 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) II. 179:
Old Chaucer, Bard of vast Ingine.Ayr. 1786 Burns To J. Lapraik v.:
He had ingine, That nane excell'd it, few cam near't, It was sae fine.Sc. 1817 Carlyle Early Letters (Norton) I. 137:
He has ingine too — but as much laziness along with it as might suffice for a Presbytery.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xii.:
Their pawky policy, and earthly ingine.Kcb. 1910 Crockett Dew of their Youth xiv.:
Not one in a thousand would have had the "engine" to do as I had done.Abd. 1928 Abd. Book-Lover VI. 14:
Gi'e me social injine, herts couthie an' kin', Nae maitter hoo laich their degree, man.Edb. 1979 Albert D. Mackie in Joy Hendry Chapman 23-4 (1985) 44:
Gin damp could sae mislear the wits o Rousseau,
What micht this partan's tae that's yokit in
My moniplyes no dae to my ingyne? em.Sc. 1999 James Robertson The Day O Judgement 27:
"Whit for was ingyne gien tae me,
Or sense or reason for ma guide?
Hou wis I no juist made a flee
Or a mauk in keech tae bide? ... "
†2. An intellect, a clever mind, a person of ability.Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 144:
For mony a deep, and mony a rare engyne Ha'e sprung frae Herriot's wark, and sprung frae mine.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 279:
We say of any with a dungeon of a head, that that person is a "great injine."
†3. An ingenious thing (Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl., enjain, injain).
4. An engine. Gen.Sc.Sc. 1824 Blackwood's Mag. (April) 382:
There's the alarm-bell — and the fire-drum! . . . Hear till the ingines.Rxb. 1925 E. C. Smith Mang Howes 23:
The motor dreiver . . . beguid o kirneen an caain eis injin.Gsw. a.1937 Oor Mither Tongue (MacWhannell) 150:
An' I hope that a spark frae yir ingin Will set the whole d—d thing on fire.
