Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
LITSTER, n., v. Also lister. [′lɪ(t)stər]
I. n. A dyer of cloth (Sc. 1710 T. Ruddiman Gl. to Douglas Aeneis s.v. littyt). Obs., as in Eng., exc. hist. or as a surname. Also in hypocoristic form littie (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 106).Sc. 1701 Edb. Gazette (6–10 Feb.):
Lost or stolon on Munday the 3d: instant out of the Work House of Robert Stewart Lister, These pieces of Cloaths.Sc. 1736 Crim. Trials Illustrative of “H. Midlothian” 298:
They then dragged him to a litster's tree, on the south side of the street, where they hanged him with a rope about his neck.Lnk. a.1779 D. Graham Writings (1883) II. 137:
The litster doucks them in amang the broe that they lit the black claith wi'.Bte. 1820 J. Blair Hist. Bute (1880) 47:
The occupier of Millhole, besides the management of his mills, exercises likewise the profession of dyer of clothes, a litster.Abd. 1867 W. Anderson Rhymes 19:
Litsters an' woo' combers meet roun' his door.Kcd. 1931 Abd. Press & Jnl. (15 Jan.):
A Mearns man tells me that in his grandfather's time a certain person who carried on the trade of dyeing in the village was known under the sobriquet of “Littie”.
II. v. To dye, follow the trade of a dyer. Rare.Peb. 1793 R. D. Brown Comic Poems (1832) II. 29:
The only dye, in litstering, He gi'es to a' his webs.
