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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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

DREG, n.2, v.2 Also draeg.

1. n.

(1) A dredge, esp. one used by fishermen for collecting shell-fish (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl., draeg; 1914 Angus Gl.).Sh. 1875 W. C. M'Intosh Marine Invertebrates and Fishes of St Andrews 62:
The old fashioned ten-tooth “dreg” is still the chief instrument in procuring shell-fish and is much more serviceable to the zoologist than the dredge.
Sh. 1949 J. Gray Lowrie 124:
Da tae o' an auld dreg.

(2) A kind of rake for drawing dung out of a cart or turfs out of a drain (Ayr.4 1928; Dmf. 1950 (per Fif.17)).

2. v. To dredge, esp. for shell-fish (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.; 1914 Angus Gl.).Ags. 1821 J. Ross Parnassus 18:
Or wi' some sorceress dreg the Nile, For Auld Egyptian charms!

3. Combs.: †(1) dreg-boat, (a) a boat or large punt used for dredging (Sc. 1887 Jam.6); (b) “a track-boat, a canal boat drawn by a horse” (Ib.); †(2) dreg song, a long nonsense song, orig. one used by oyster-dredgers; for an ex. see D. Herd Sc. Songs (1776) II. 163; (3) dreg-tow, “the rope attached to a dredging-machine” (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.).(1) (a) Edb. 1739 Caled. Mercury (16 Jan.) 2933:
At Kinghorn, almost every House was uncovered, particularly the Church, which was otherwise greatly damaged: A Dreg-boat, which had been hawled up from the Sea-mark, was tossed in the Air, and thrown to an incredible Distance.
(2) Sc. a.1850 H. Hecht Herd's MSS. (1904) 312:
“Dreg songs” were the interminable delight of the harvest dinner-hour — especially among the Irishmen. . . . I have heard an old man recite one of these long-blown medleys for three-quarters of an hour without a break. The more mixed the metaphor the more delight it gave. Any sing-song tune serves for the recital, if the cadences can be worked in.

[O.Sc. has dreg-bot, 1471, dreg, to dredge, from a.1508, appar. related to Eng. dredge (n., 1602, v., 1570) as Segg to sedge, Brig to bridge, etc. See P.L.D. § 66.1. The word is presumably from a mutated stem of drag.]

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"Dreg n.2, v.2". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 29 Mar 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/dreg_n2_v2>

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