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.
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?
