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.
†OWERSPADE, v. Also over-spade. To trench land by making narrow parallel trenches, and heaping the earth at the sides on the breadths of undug soil.Abd. 1811 G. S. Keith Agric. Abd. 361:
All garden grounds are trenched . . . thoroughly . . .; or else they are half-trenched, provincially over-spaded, that is, narrow stitches, about 15 inches deep, and two feet wide, are laid upon an equal breadth of untilled land, and in that situation exposed to the winter's frost.
