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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

RIPPLE, n.²

1. Gen. in pl.: a disease affecting the back and loins (Sc. 1808 Jam.), popularly associated with sexual excesses. Boece's description (Chronicles XI. vi.) suggests gonorrhea. Now arch. Glossed erron. as the king's evil or scrofula by J. Leyden Complaynt Scot. (1801) 331. Phrs. to get a ripple, to tak the ripple, to be struck down by severe illness (Sc. 1887 Jam.).Sc. 1728 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) II. 154:
For Warld's Wasters, like poor Cripples, Look blunt with Poverty and Ripples.Per. 1766 A. Nicol Poems 50:
The bridegroom winna scruple To tell his bosom friend what ail'th Him, tho he tak' the ripple On her some day.Lnk. a.1779 D. Graham Writings (1883) III. 14:
Jockey's mither killed the black boul horn'd yeal Ewe . . . three hens and a gule fitted cock, to prevent the ripples.Ayr. 1785 Burns Letter to Goudie iv.:
Auld Orthodoxy lang did grapple, But now she's got an unco ripple.Edb. 1787 W. Taylor Poems 143:
It temper'd weel our mony-plies, Ca'd ripples frae our backs.Sc. 18th c. Merry Muses (1911) 35:
I rede you beware o' the ripples, young man, If you would be strang, and wish to live lang, Dance less wi' your a — e to the kipples, young man.s.Sc. 1898 E. Hamilton Mawkin xvi.:
I'm never the same man since the ripples took me.Sc. 1926 H. M'Diarmid Drunk Man 24:
But Man's a fiky bairn Wi' bellythraw, ripples, and worm-i'-the-cheek!

2. Appar. a dance or dancing step, performed orig. to the tune to which the song in the Merry Muses quot. above was sung, mentioned in a musical MS. of 1694 (see J. C. Dick Songs Burns (1903) 409).Per. 1898 C. Spence Poems 88:
Will jumpit higher than the couples, And Bailie Watson danced the ripples.Mry. 1921 T.S.D.C. IV.:
He danc't it rael weel but he didna pit in a' the ripples.