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.
KEB, v.1, n.1 [kɛb]
I. v. 1. Of a ewe: to cast a lamb prematurely, to give birth to a dead lamb (s.Sc. 1808 Jam.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Kcb., Dmf., Slk. 1959). Ppl.adj. keb(b)it, -et, -ed, of a lamb: prematurely born, still-born (Rxb. 1825 Jam., 1914 Kelso Chron. (11 Dec.) 4; Ayr. 1959); of a ewe: aborted, having borne a dead lamb (Dmf. 1885 J. C. Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 724); ¶barren.Sc. 1816 Scott B. Dwarf xix.:
The malignant daemon called the Man of the Moors . . . is generally represented as bewitching the sheep, causing the ewes to keb.Sc. 1824 Royal Sc. Minstr. 132:
And a'll afield fetch hame the ewe, That kebed i' the spring.s.Sc. 1858 H. S. Riddell Song of Solomon iv. 2:
Whareo' ilka ane hes twons an' nane kebbet amang thame.
2. Of a ewe: to lose a lamb by early death (Peb., Dmf., Slk. 1825 Jam.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; m.Lth., Slk. 1959); with at: to refuse to suckle. Used of a woman in a.1779 quot.Lnk. a.1779 D. Graham Writings (1883) II. 36:
I trow she wad keb at it, as the black ew did at the white ews lamb the last year.Sc. 1801 J. Leyden Complaynt Scot. 346:
Ewes are said to keb, when their lambs die early, and they are suffered to go yeld.Slk. 1829 Hogg Shepherd's Cal. (1874) xx.:
It was his uniform practice to send her home with the kebbed ewes just as he got them. . . . A kebbed ewe is one whose lamb dies.
II. n. 1. A ewe that has cast her lamb or failed to rear it (Rxb. 1802 J. Sibbald Chron. Sc. Poetry Gl., 1923 Watson W.-B.; Dmf., Slk. 1959).w.Sc. 1950 Scots Mag. (March) 422:
The shepherd . . . carries it [lamb] home . . . to be bottle-fed . . . until he has a “keb” ready for it — a “keb” being a ewe whose own lamb has died.Slg. 1992:
A keb's a ewe that has lost her lamb before her time.
2. Combs.: (1) keb-ewe, -yow(e), a ewe that has lost her lamb(s) (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 289; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Fif., Lth. 1926 Wilson Cent. Scot. 251; Fif. 1959); (2) keb-hoose, a small shed or shelter where a ewe that has lost her lamb is confined while being made to adopt another (s.Sc. 1886 C. Scott Sheep Farming 118; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.); a shelter for young lambs in the lambing season (Gall. 1902 E.D.D.; Dmf. 1959); (3) keb-lamb, a prematurely born lamb (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.). See I. 1.; also, phs. erron., defined as a lamb whose mother dies when it is young (s.Sc. 1801 J. Leyden Complaynt Scot. 346); (4) keb-park, a field set apart for ewes that have keb-lambs (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Dmf., Slk. 1959).(2) s.Sc. 1872 Trans. Highl. Soc. 66:
Termed in the south a “shiel, keb-house”, or sheep-cot, used for the purpose of housing sheep during stormy weather, especially in the lambing season.Peb. 1927 J. Dickson Poems (1938) 60:
He'd only to the kebhouse ga'en To set his collie free.s.Sc. 1957 Scotsman (19 Oct.) 8:
A locked “keb-hoose” on the hillside.
3. A still-born or premature lamb (Kcb., Dmf. 1959); fig., a miscarriage in one's affairs, a plan which fails to work (Dmf. 1959).s.Sc. 1871 H. S. Riddell Poet. Wks. II. 204:
He coungers our kyloes, and causes our kebs, And a fearfu' auld carl is Johnie Nip-nebs.Gall. 1925 Scottish Farmer (21 Feb.):
If these “kebs” or “picks” are left lying on the hill, it may cause a continuance of this sort of thing all through the lambing.
†4. A sow whose litter is born dead (Rxb. 1825 Jam.).
5. In pl.: the game of “knucklebones”, commonly played with the metacarpal or metatarsal bones of a sheep (Gall., Slk. 1902 E.D.D.), the bones prob. being thought of as sheep themselves.
[O.Sc. keb, = II. 1., from 1549, keb ȝow, from 1576. Of doubtful orig., phs. cogn. with Ger. dial. kibbe, ewe, Mid.Du. kebbe, young pig, kabbelen, to bring forth, Flem. kippe, newly-born calf.]
