Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
LIVERY, n. Also ¶liveray. Sc. usages:
1. The dress, finery, presents and other paraphernalia of a wedding.Fif. 1886 S. Tytler St Mungo's City i.:
There was not a room clear of bride's-cake, or white gloves — “livery” the elder ladies called them.Fif. 1897 S. Tytler Witch-Wife viii.:
For a desirable wooer and his wooing, with no end of laughing and daffing in the present, and the prospect of ample livery in the future, were in the air.
2. Comb.: †livery-meal, a certain quantity of meal given to farm-servants as part of their wages in lieu of board (s.Sc. 1802 J. Sibbald Chron. Sc. Poetry Gl.).Per. 1750 Atholl MSS.:
His wages to be a year: of standing wages … £3, a Free house, ane Kail yeard, his livery meal.Clc. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 VIII. 626:
When livery-meal was given, 2 pecks or 16 lb. Dutch weight per week seems to have been always the fixed quantity. Those plough-men, who did not live in the farmer's house, had besides their livery-meal, 6½ bolls per annum.m.Lth. 1812 P. Forbes Poems 133:
Wi' four pound a year, milk, an' livery meal.Sc. 1829 G. Robertson Recollections 100:
They [cottars] had at all times two pecks of oatmeal weekly, as livery-meal, from the master.Peb. 1845 Stat. Acc.2 III. 141:
Victuals in the house, or livery meal and kitchen money yearly.
