Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

FIVES, n.pl. Also in dim. forms, sing. fivey; pl. fiveacks (Inv. 1951), fivies (Mry., Ags., Wgt. 1951) and in comb. five stanes (Fif. 1950). The game of Chucks (see Chuck, n.², 2.) played with five stones or pebbles.Bnff. 1857 Bnff. Jnl. (25 April 1916):
The time left available was spent in the resting game of “Five Stanes.”Ags. 1896 Barrie Sentimental Tommy xxxvii.:
The smaller girls of Monypenny were sitting in passages playing at fivey.Ags. 1914 I. Bell Country Clash 165:
Nae wumman has a richt to toss up an' shuffle aboot her hert like a bairn playin' at the five stanes.Ags. 1921 A. S. Neill Carroty Broon x.:
They had silly games — fives or chuckies, for instance, where they sat by a mound of sand and threw up five little stones, and caught them on the back of the hand.Rs. 1948 N. M. Gunn Silver Bough xix.:
“What's five-stones?” “Och, just a lassies' game!”

Hence fivesie, a variant of the game in which two stones are thrown in the air while the rest are being picked up (Ags.¹⁹ 1952).