Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

STECHIE, adj. Also stechy, steechie, stighy. Of persons: stiff in the joints, slow in movement, from being stiff or corpulent or from indolence, stodgy (Fif. 1825 Jam.; Per., Ayr. 1915–23 Wilson; Per. (ste(e)chie), Slg., Fif., Dmb. 1971). Also fig. in 1897 quot. = stiff in manner, restrained, formal, not relaxed.Ayr. 1826 Galt Last of Lairds MS. xxiii.:
A thickset stighy ne'er-do-weel.Gsw. 1865 J. Young Homely Pictures 55:
Thou art nae stechie sonsie.Fif. 1875 A. Burgess Poute 87:
[He] can nether Happie — Jump — nor rin — he is sae Stiff and Stechie.Knr. 1895 H. Haliburton Dunbar 23:
Stechy Tam a forward fule Wha never needit pressin.Sc. 1897 Scots Mag. (July) 124:
The talk was naturally somewhat “stechy” at first; but gradually a simmer of good-humoured sounds arose.Sc. 1928 J. G. Horne Lan'wart Loon 15:
His stechy stumps an' mendit claes.Ayr. 1940:
The auld body was gey stechie.Clc. 1996:
I'm gey stechie the day. m.Sc. 1999 John Milligan Fifteen Scots Poems 6:
O stechie cloods an atmosphere
Aboon the drumlie hills.