Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
STICKLY, adj. Also stichlie. Prickly, bristly, stubbly; of peat: full of little roots and twigs, rough, fibrous (Kcd. 1825 Jam.); fig. touchy, huffy. Also in n.Eng. dial.Bnff. 1812 D. Souter Agric. Bnff. App. 77:
The third is called a stickly moss, because it is all mixed with crops of trees, which, in old time, had grown in that ground.Kcd. 1883 Fish and Fisheries (Herbert) 113:
That kind of peat known as “stickly” peat.e.Lth. 1885 S. Mucklebackit Rhymes 12:
My saul waxed proud to them a' O' little drunts ne'er stickly.s.Sc. 1898 E. Hamilton Mawkin vi.:
Her head on which there had sprouted a short stickly growth.Abd. 1912 Buchan Ass. Mag. (March) 6:
The best peats were dug up beside these deposits of twigs and branches, and were called “stickly peats”.Abd. 1992 David Toulmin Collected Short Stories 107:
She would fill her lap with black, stickly peats.
