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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BREEK, Briek, Brick, v.¹ [brik Sc., but Abd. brɪk]

1. To put into trousers. Gen. used in pa.p. Gen.Sc.Sc. 1859 Mrs Oliphant Adam Graeme ii. xvi.:
Ane would think they were learnt to put this and that thegither afore they were breekit.Abd. 1924 L. Coutts Caul' Nor'-East 19:
He's bricket at last an' aff tae the squeel.

Hence briekit, “having trousers on” (Ags.² 1935). Used fig. in 1866 quot. Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.:
“A briekit sheep” — a dark-coloured sheep with white legs and belly.Gsw. 1836 Gsw. Journal (2 Jan.) 117:
In swallow-skirted coat, an' breckit [sic] In plush-a beckin' booin' spicket!

Comb. breekit stick, a forked stick used in a catapult (em.Sc. (a) 1975).

2. “A term used by females, when on a rainy day, in shearing, they tuck up their petticoats to their knees, somewhat in the form of breeches. The question is often asked, ‘Are ye gaün to breek the day?'” (Lth. 1825 Jam.²). This was done also as a preliminary to other forms of labour in which women engaged (see quots.). Known to Bnff.² 1935.Ayr. publ. 1892 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage, etc. and Poems 221:
Our lassies then for boyne an' tub Their coats began to breek.Dmf. 1925 W. A. Scott in Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. 18:
The women land workers were the pioneers of the modern land workers' dress. They breeked their coats by tying them round the knee with their gairtens.

3. (a) “To expose and flog the parts a posteriore [sic]; as, ‘The maister breekit Jock the day for faichtan wee Jamie'” (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 16; Bnff.² 1935).

(b) “To expose a man's nakedness” (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 218).

4. In curling: to play a stone so as to lie on the other side of an opponent's stone from one played already. Fif. 1830 Perthshire Adv. (11 Feb.):
The common way of getting in was by striking out another, or breeking upon him as it is called.