Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
†SKIFF, n.3 Also skift.
1. A trough-shaped box, basket or sim. container.Sc. 1783 W. Gordon Livy (1823) 20:
The water had subsided and left the trough or skift in which the infants had been exposed, on dry ground.
2. In dim. form skiffie: a kind of sledge or small hutch in which coal was formerly brought from the working-face to the pit-head. The form skiff is found in Cornish mining usage.Slg. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 XV. 331, XVIII. 241:
There were employed at least two men at the windlass, putting up the coal in skiffies. . . . The manner in which they [coals] are wrought is by pick and wedge; boys, and sometimes girls are employed to draw the skiffies, below ground.
