Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1898
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NUGGET, n. Also nuget.
Sc. usages:
1. A short, stout-bellied person (s.Sc. 1825 Jam.); in Heriot's Hospital: a term of opprobrium for a thick-headed boy; the head itself. Also in Australian Eng.Edb. 1898 J. Baillie Walter Crighton 63, 169, 145:
Oh, the sleepy nugget, let us gie him a muggin'. . . . The nugget's cakie, an' as big a sumph as is in the “Wark” . . . That upper cut was a lucky one. The bully never raised his “nugget” again.
2. A striped glass marble (Edb. 1960). Poss. orig. a different word, from Eng. knuck(le), a shooting marble.
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"Nugget n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 2 Apr 2026 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/nugget>
