Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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SILE, n.⁴ Also syle, cyle. [səil]

1. A pillar.Cld. 1818 Scots Mag. (Aug.) 155:
At Nether Affleck, there is a very curious relic of antiquity called Wallace's Syles, which are of a very curious and complicated construction, and exceedingly strong.

2. A roof rafter or couple, usu. one of a pair (Ayr., Rxb. 1825 Jam.), hence a pair o' siles (Ib.); the foot or lower part of a rafter (Jam., cyle), also sile-blade; “a large horizontal beam to the ends of which the lower extremities of the couples are nailed” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.). Comb. syle cap,? a collar-beam.Rnf. 1757 Session Papers, Govan v. Govan (29 Nov.) 32:
He carried syle caps, rib and roof sticks, from the houses at Mains.Rxb. 1805 A. Scott Poems 22:
Ye didna ken but syle o' kipple, Or stock to some auld wife's lint-ripple, Might be your fate.Ayr. 1811 W. Aiton Agric. Ayr. 114:
The roof was formed of strong cupples termed syles, set up 8 or 10 feet distant from each other.wm.Sc. 1825 Jam.:
Two transverse beams go from the one sile-blade to the other, to prevent the siles from being pressed down by the super-incumbent load, which would soon make the walls skail, that is, jut outwards. The operation of joining the beams together, which is a work of considerable nicety, is called knittin' the siles.