Show Search Results Show Browse

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

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

FLAG, n.4 Also flack (s.Sc.), †flake, †flaik. A piece of turf cut or pared from the sward, a sod (Ags. 1790 D. Morison Poems Gl. 221; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B., flag, flack). Obs. exc. dial. in Eng.Sc. 1747 Lyon in Mourning (S.H.S.) II. 220:
Or let's but safely show our backs And by Hanover, The Dutch shall a' be bur'it like flacks Ere I come over.
Dmf. 1781 Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. (1933–5) 40:
The inhabitants of the burgh are forbidden to cast “truffs or flaiks” on the common moor.
Ayr. 1793 Col. Fullarton Agric. Ayr. 34:
In order to lay that furrow neatly up, shouldering to the next, it is necessary that the flake or furrow be at least one third wider than its depth.
Borders 1808 Jam.:
A large sod, put at the back of the fire. is called a flag.
Dmf. c.1860 J. and R. Hyslop Langholm as it was (1912) 556:
It is expeckit that every ane wha has occasion for peats, breckans, flacks, stanes, or clay will gan' oot this day in defence o' their properties.

[The same word as Eng. flag, a flag-stone, cogn. with Flaw, n.1, v.1 Cf. Icel. flag, a place where turf has been cut. The forms with k correspond with Eng. flake.]

You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.

"Flag n.4". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 29 Mar 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/flag_n4>

11311

snd

Hide Advanced Search

Browse SND:

    Loading...

Share: