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.
ROUT, v.1 Of the sea, winds, thunder, etc: to roar, rumble, make a loud noise. Ppl.n. routing, roaring, rumbling; ppl.adj. routing, used in place-names, as Routin Brig, Dumfriesshire, Routinburn, Ayrshire. Obs. in Eng. [rut]Lth. 1724 D. Defoe Tour Gt. Br. (1748) IV. 19:
At Monckton, near Edinburgh, is a Well, called The Routing Well; because of the Noise it makes before Tempests.Sc. a.1776 Lowlands of Holland in Child Ballads II. 318:
The weary wind began to rise, and the sea began to rout.m.Lth. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 XVI. 9:
The Routing Well at Monktoun, that is said always to predict a storm, is a wonder of the same nature as the preceding. The case is, that this well, being dug many fathoms deep, through a rock, in order to get below the strata of coal that abound in the field, it communicates through the coal rooms that are wrought, with other shafts; which occasions a rumbling noise, that does not precede, but accompanies a high wind.Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl.:
Routing-wheel, an eddy or whirlpool at the entrance of Strangford Lough. Mentioned by Harris (1744).m.Sc. 1898 J. Buchan J. Burnet iv. ii.:
The roarin' and routin' o' the burn.Uls. 1901 G. F. Savage-Armstrong Ballads of Down 371:
Dangerous eddies . . . named, from their loud and ominous roaring sound, “the Routing Rocks”.Sc. 1907 D. MacAlister Echoes (1923) 165:
Owre the stanes the spate is routin.
