Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
STEAK, n. Sc. usage in comb. steak-raid, a portion of the cattle stolen in a foray which was levied on the depredators by the proprietor of the lands through which the prey was driven. Hist.Sc. 1775 L. Shaw Hist. Moray 219:
MacIntosh, then [1454] residing in the Island of Moy, sent to ask a Stike Raid, or Stike Creich, i.e. a Road Collup; a custom among the Highlanders, that, when a party drove any spoil of cattle, through a gentleman's land, they should give him part of the spoil.Sc. 1814 Scott Waverley xxiii.:
What the people of old used to call a “steakraid”, that is, “a collop of the foray”, or in plainer words, a portion of the robber's booty, paid by him to the laird or chief through whose grounds he drove his prey.
