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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

CORBIE, Corby, Korbi, n. [′kɔrbɪ̢, ′korbi]

1. The raven, Corvus corax, often regarded as a bird of ill omen. Sometimes also the carrion crow, Corvus corone (Cai.¹ c.1930; Fif.¹ 1937; e.Lth. 1885 C. Swainson Brit. Birds 82), and the hooded crow, Corvus cornix (Per. Swainson 86; Uls. 1880 W. H. Patterson Gl. Ant. and Dwn.). Angus Gl. (1914) gives the form korbi for Sh. Gen.Sc.Sc. 1832 A. Henderson Sc. Proverbs 108:
Corbies dinna pick out corbies' een.Sc. 1995 James S. Adam New Verses for an Auld Sang 31:
birds across the treetops ceilidhing,
blackies musical cascades fluting,
starlings restless thieving sparring,
speugs chirruping, corbies cawing, ... Cai. 1929 Caithness Forum in John o' Groat Jnl. (25 Oct.):
Fan 'e corby comes 'fore 'e craw, 'E fairmer he can ploo an' saw.w.Abd. 1797–1881 W. D. Geddes (ed.) Mem. of J. Geddes (1899) 38–39:
Bonnyman sat like a corby on his path, and Captain Fyfe had ultimately to succumb, a ruined man.Ags. 1988 Raymond Vettese The Richt Noise 67:
And there's birds: the mavis, the spug, the corbie,
the stuckie, the greenlintie, the bullie, e'en a gow,
and there's a hornygoloch and there's a slater,
sae muckle life in sic a smaa place
gin ye look! m.Sc. 1998 Lillias Forbes Turning a Fresh Eye 6:
Ye glowered frae yer ain hill rise
An I frae mine -
Mair pairt o' the Borderlan'
Nor ony corbie speirin whaur tae dine!Lnk. 1838 McIlwham Papers (ed. J. Morrison) Letter ii. 20:
I hae aye heard that ye wur great at mental pheelosophy, an' I aye thocht ye mair o' a natral also than to mistak a Craw for a Corby.sm.Sc. 1979 Alan Temperley Tales of Galloway (1986) 269:
The funeral procession prepared to leave his house, but as the coffin was laid on the hearse a corbie flew down and perched upon it, black as night, and as saucy and as confident as could be. Rxb. a.1860 J. Younger Autobiog. (1881) 92:
Till our banes be bleached white after they're a' pikeit bare wi' the corbies.

2. The rook, Corvus frugilegus (Abd.⁹, Fif.¹⁰, Lnk.³ 1937). Also fig. a swindler, one who “rooks” another.Sc. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxiv.:
I'll never bear sae base a mind as thae corbies in the Gallowgate — an' I am to lose by ye, I'se ne'er deny I hae won by ye mony a fair pund sterling.Sc. 1915 Seton Gordon Hill Birds of Scot. 89:
D'ye ken the hoose o' Sir William Forbes, Surrounded by trees a' black wi' corbies.

3. See Comb. (3), below.

4. Used adjectivally in fig. senses: (1) raven-black; (2) of taste: unrefined, undiscriminating (from the raven's practice of feeding on carrion).(1) Rxb. 1826 A. Scott Poems 95:
Even in this neighbourhood of late, An apparition held its seat, That mony folks was wont to fright, Beneath the corbie wing of night.(2) Ags. 1820 Montrose Chron. (22 Dec.) 463/3:
A taste which is so truly corbie, that it cries humph to nothing, however deep the mark of other vermin in the dish.

5. Phr.: to be a gone corbie, to be done for, a “goner.” Gen.Sc.Ags. 1904 Arbroath Guide (3 Sept.) 3/7:
I telt her that gin the red men got hauds o' him he would be a gone corbie.wm.Sc. [1835–37] Laird of Logan (1868) 17:
I'm a gone corbie this winter, if I getna some place to shelter me.w.Dmf. 1917 J. L. Waugh Cute McCheyne 65:
At the lang hinner en' the doctor tell't . . . that he was a . . . gone corbie, an' that he would ha'e to put his hoose in order.

6. Combs.: †(1) corbie-aits, “a species of black oats, different from those called shiacks” (n.Sc. 1808 Jam.); (2) corbie-craw, = 1 above (Fif.¹³ 1928); (3) corbie messenger, a messenger who fails to return, or returns too late (Bnff.¹², Fif.¹⁰ 1937; Ayr.⁴ 1928); also simply corbie (Ayr.⁴ 1928). See also 1777 quot.; (4) corbie stanes, = Eng. corbie-steps, steplike projections of stone on the sloping part of a gable (Bnff.², Abd.²², Fif.¹⁰, Lnk.³ 1937); cf. crawstep s.v. Craw, n.¹; also applied to a kind of fossil; (5) corbie wing, a long-handled scythe (see first quot. s.v. Bayoo).(2) Dmf. 1823 J. Kennedy Poems and Songs 71:
That tribe, I trow, are as auldfarran As corbie-craws, that live on carrion.(3) Sc. 1777 J. Brand Pop. Antiquities (1849) I. 139:
In Scotland the persons sent on [April-fool] errands were called, corbie messengers.Sc. 1824 Scott St Ronan's W. III. xii.:
The male emissary proved, in Scottish phrase, a “corbie messenger”; for either he did not find the doctor, or he found him better engaged than to attend the sick-bed of a pauper.Slk. 1822 Hogg Perils of Man II. 91:
I wadna like that we were trowed to be corbie messengers.(4) Sc. 1700 R. Wodrow Early Letters (S.H.S.) 123:
In company of my adder, serpent, toad, and corby stones.Sc. 1933 N. Abercrombie in Scots Mag. (Jan.) 291:
As Allardyce dined that evening he heard the wind getting up, rumbling round and round the . . . “corbie stanes,” turrets and gables of the castle.

7. A nickname for a policeman (Fif., Lth. 1926 Wilson Cent. Scot. 235).