Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
†CUMMERFEALLS, n.pl. “An entertainment formerly given in Scot. on the recovery of a female from inlying” (Sc. 1825 Jam.2).Sc. 1818 S. E. Ferrier Marriage II. xi.:
At the leddy's recovery, there was a graund supper gien that they caw'd the cummerfealls.Sc. 1884 C. Rogers Social Life I. iv.:
The occasion was known as the gossip's wake or cummerfealls.Gall. 1882 J. Douglas Book of Galloway, 1745 46:
No cummerfealls had been here as in the houses of the great.
