Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1941 (SND Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1755, 1816-1818
[0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]
BOOT, n. and v. The noun is used in Sc. as in St.Eng. to mean a covering for the foot and ankle; the specific Sc. meaning only is illustrated below. For the normal Sc. dial. variants buit, bute, beet, bit, beut, and for combs. see Buit, n.1
1. n. An instrument of torture, consisting of a case, enclosing the lower leg and the foot of the victim, the bones of which were crushed by driving in wedges between the case and the flesh. In Covenanting times it was specially notorious and became known in England as the Scottish Boot. In Mod.Sc. usage the spelling boot in above sense has gen. supplanted the O.Sc. buit, bute.Sc. 1755 S. Johnson Dict.:
Boot. A kind of rack for the leg, formerly used in Scotland for torturing criminals.Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality xxxvi.:
An oaken table . . . on which lay thumb-screws, and an iron case, called the Scottish boot.
2. v. To subject to the torture of the Boot or Boots.Sc. 1818 Scott in J. G. Lockhart Life of Scott (1837) IV. iv.:
Grainger and his wife were booted (that is, tortured with the engine called the boots).
