Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1721, 1772-1998
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SAPPIE, adj. Also sappy. Sc. usages:
1. Of cooked meat or flesh: full of sap or substance, succulent, savoury, juicy. Gen.Sc.Sc. 1721 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 135:
Bra sappy Fish To clap on Fadge or Scon.Hdg. a.1801 R. Gall Poems (1819) 66:
Mair sappy anes [puddings] ne'er crossed your wizen.Sc. 1826 Wilson Noctes Amb. (1855) I. 123:
He helps himself . . . wi' a lang airm, to the sappiest dishes.Edb. 1873 D. Maclagan Nugae 107:
An' sappy broo they boil't him in.Ags. 1897 Bards Ags. (Reid) 496:
To feast on fare sae fresh and sappy.m.Sc. 1917 J. Buchan Poems 25:
Half the week we piked the banes, And fand them sappy.Lnk. 1997 Duncan Glen Seventeen Poems 6:
Kitchened mince collops
Wi doughbaws, and the breid
Soakit and sappy
In wattery gravy.
2. Fig.: full of goodness or savour, smooth and palatable, profitable; of persons: unctuous, full of exaggerated or affected fervour.Ayr. 1823 Galt Entail iv.:
I hear that ye hae gotten a sappy bargain o' the Grippy.Dmf. 1873 W. McDowall Dumfries 695:
The matter, rich, “sappy”, and soundly evangelical.Sc. 1887 Stevenson Underwoods 96:
Wi' sappy unction, hoo he burkes The hopes o' men that trust in works.Kcb. 1895 Crockett Bog-Myrtle ii. 1.:
He had sat under him all his life, and was sappy with his teaching.Fif. 1897 L. Keith Bonnie Lady xvi.:
You do Tammas Swan too much honour by paying so much deference to his bad opinion of your sermons. . . . he makes the “sappy” Mr. Todd his standard.
3. Plump, fat, sleek, fleshy, not shrunken or shrivelled (Sc. 1825 Jam., “of a female”; Abd., Gall. 1969).Rnf. a.1801 R. Tannahill Poems (1900) 11:
Isn't siller maks our gentles fair an sappy?Mry. 1820 J. Cock Homespun Lays 135:
Wha likes to tak' a moderate drappy It tends to mak ye swak an' sappy.Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr. Duguid 133:
To byde till the eggs were clockit, and the 'earocks of some sonsy and sappy size.Abd. 1922 G. P. Dunbar Whiff o' Doric 18:
A sappy “hairy granda” on his boo't preen was stuck fast.Edb. 1926 A. Muir Blue Bonnet v.:
Him wi' the sappy nose.Kcd. 1932 Scots Mag. (Dec.) 169:
Big though he was, with a sappy big face.Abd. 1998 Sheena Blackhall The Bonsai Grower 17:
The Mowatt faimly bedd twa mile up Glen Dubh, heid o a sma brae luikin ower thon sonsie wee burn that raged fite wi watter in winter, bit in spring wis green wi treelipin, sappy stringles o girse at its sides.
4. Wet, soppy, dripping, sodden (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.); rainy (ne. and m.Sc. 1969). Also in Eng. dial. Also fig. steeped, saturated. As a n. in pl. sappies, wet feet (Watson, Rxb. 1969).Ayr. 1821 Galt Annals viii.:
All the middens were gathered out reeking and sappy in the middle of the causeway.Wgt. 1880 G. Fraser Lowland Lore 164:
This sample o' the Kelpie race Tho' wi' her sappy decorations.Fif. 1895 S. Tytler Macdonald Lass ix.:
The weather was a thought sappy.Abd. 1961 P. Buchan Mount Pleasant 73:
[We] splashed through lochs o' pickle bree an' seas o' sappy dubs.
5. Fig. Given up to liquor, bibulous; “applied to those who sit long, who moisten themselves well” (Sc. 1825 Jam.; ‡Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.).Rxb. 1807 J. Ruickbie Wayside Cottager 187:
Sic sappy callan's ne'er are right, But whan the glass is fillin'.Ayr. 1826 Galt Last of the Lairds iii.:
Mony a sooh and sappy night they had wi' ane anither.
6. Soft, soggy, like saps, of food (Sh., Bnff., Abd., Ags., Per. 1969).m.Lth. 1894 P. H. Hunter J. Inwick xx.:
I'll süne hae to stay my stamack wi' sappy meat, like a spained wean.Sc. 1928 J. G. Horne Lan'wart Loon 8:
For Tam bood ha'e them cüil an' set; He couldna thole them sappy het.
7. Of a bed, etc.: soft, yielding, comfortable.Fif. 1774 Boswell Ominous Years (Ryskamp and Pottle 1963) 19:
I have provided a sappy bed for you — at Miss Erskine's of Balgonie.Ags. 1840 G. Webster Ingliston xxxv.:
Twa pair o' sappy English blankets.Slg. 1876 A. B. Grosart Wilson's Poems I. xxxii.:
Sic a body o' claith tae, as saft an sappy as a soo's lug.
8. Of a kiss: soft, tender, “juicy”, long-drawn-out (Ork., Abd. 1969).Edb. 1772 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 90:
Here country John, in bonnet blue, Rins after Meg wi' rokelay new, An' sappy kisses lays on.Abd. 1790 A. Shirrefs Poems 214:
To gi'e to ilka dainty dame A sappy kiss.Kcb. 1808 J. Mayne Siller Gun 41:
The sappy kiss, and squeeze, between Ilk blithesome reel!Abd. 1920 G. P. Dunbar Peat Reek 14:
He teen an antrin sappy kiss, or got a sappy skelp.
9. In comb. sappy-headed, simple-minded, silly, foolish, “soft” in the head (Ags., Per. 1969). Cf. colloq. Eng. sap, sapskull, a simpleton.Per. 1881 R. Ford Readings 17:
You took us for sappy-headed goslins.Ags. 1894 J. B. Salmond Bawbee Bowden (1922) 71:
Did you ever hear o' sic a sappy-heidit nowt?
