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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

FUGIE, n., adj., v. Also fuge(e), fug(e)y, fudgie, -y, fudge(e), fougie, foodg(i)e, fooge(e), foo(d)jie; fuggie; fugae; ¶fidgie, fidjie (Mry. 1898 Gsw. Herald (30 June)). [′f(j)u:dʒi, also fu:dʒ, esp. as a v.]

I. n. 1. In comb. fugie-warrant, fugae-, a warrant issued by a sheriff to a creditor to apprehend a debtor on sworn information that he is in meditatione fugae, i.e. contemplating flight from the country; “rarely granted” (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 55). Also fugie (Sc. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet vii.).Sc. 1816 Scott Antiquary xx.:
I fand it was for drawing a warrant to apprehend you. — I thought it had been on a fugie warrant for debt.Edb. 1828 D. M. Moir Mansie Wauch (1839) xxiv.:
As if he had been an Edinburgh . . . lawyer, studying his hornings, duplies, and fugie warrants.Sc. 1837 Tait's Mag. (June) 374:
Sundries due me for five years bygane by Mistress Anne, against whom I'll need to get a fugie warrant, as she'll be soon flitting her quarters.Edb. 1844 J. Ballantine Miller (1869) xvi.:
He is now our prisoner, at the instance of Messrs Chance, Snacks and Co., bankers, on a fugae warrant.Sc. 1871 Erskine Institute i. ii. § 21 Note (c):
A Sheriff's fugae warrant may be executed beyond his county with indorsation.Arg. 1901 N. Munro Doom Castle iv.:
Here's Drimdarroch wi' the lave, at any rate the weight of it in processes, records, caveats, . . . fugie warrants, compts and reckonings.

2. A runaway, fugitive (Cai. 1900 E.D.D.); a coward, craven (Kcd. 1931 Abd. Press and Jnl. (15 March); Ags. 1953). Used contemptuously for any poor-spirited person.Abd. 1777 R. Forbes in Sc. Poems 29:
How foul's the bibble he spits out Fan he ca's me a fugee!Per. c.1800 Lady Nairne Songs (ed. Rogers 1905) 185:
Oh, ne'er for greed o' warldly gear, Let thy brave sons, like fugies, hide.Edb. 1828 D. M. Moir Mansie Wauch (1898) xxv.:
Little could they foresee . . . that a battle of Waterloo would ever be fought, to make the confounded fugies draw in their horns, and steek up their scraighing gabs for ever.Sc.(E) 1873 D. M. Ogilvy Willie Wabster 8–9:
Thof Will was stamfish, stieve, and spunkie, He fled, a fugie and a funkie.n.Sc. 1931 I. Macpherson Shepherd's Cal. 92:
You spoilt him, mother. He just makes a poor fugey of you.

3. Specif.: a runaway cock from a cock-fight, esp. the one staged in schools on Shrove Tuesday (Sc. 1863 R. Chambers Bk. of Days I. 238). Now only hist. Often attrib. with cock, id., applied also to cowardly men.Sc. 1777 J. Brand Pop. Antiq. I. 234:
The Schoolmasters were said to preside at the Battle, and claimed the run-a-way Cocks, as their Perquisites. These were called “Fugees.”Sc. 1835 Wilson's Tales of the Borders I. 163:
It is a fougie cock indeed that darena craw in its ain barn-yard.n.Sc. 1850 H. Miller Scenes and Leg. 418:
The fugies were fastened to a stake in the playground, and destroyed, one after one, in the noble game of cock-throwing, by such of the pupils or of the town's-people as could indulge in the amusement at the rate of halfpenny the throw. The master not only pocketed all the halfpennies, but he also carried with him all the carcases.Ags. 1860 A. Whamond James Tacket vii.:
When a cock would not fight, we all shouted, “A Fugie, a Fugie,” and the poor fugie was given to the master.Lnk. 1880 W. Grossart Shotts 198:
The fugies or coward birds that refused to fight.e.Lth. 1881 J. Sands Tranent 21:
A main was fought in the school-room every year under the patronage of the school-master, who claimed all the run-away cocks or “fugies” as his perquisite.Abd. a.1897 in Cal. Customs Scot. (1937) I. 12:
White cocks were not courageous birds, and commonly fled. Hence a common name for such a bird was a “fugie cock.” Hence any one whether man or boy who would not stand up for himself when there was need was called a “fugie cock.”

†4. Transf.: a light blow, gen. accompanied by the word as a taunt, given by one schoolboy to another as a challenge to fight (Cld. 1880 Jam.). Gen.Sc. obs. Also fugie-blow (Rxb. 1825 Jam., s.v. funkie; Rs.¹ 1909). Cf. Coocher, n., Cooard, 4.Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr Duguid 110:
With James, it was aye a word and a lick, so, by way of fugè, he gied Willie Pung a cloor on the haffet.Inv. 1897 Highland News (27 March) 9:
D — did give him foo-gee and taunted N — with his little finger and slapped the point of his nose.Lnk. 1898 Gsw. Herald (30 June):
If his opponent failed to respond to it, then he repeated the following rhyme: — “There's the foodjie, there's the blow; Fight me, or else no.” [Variants are “You're bet (or feart), and I'm no.”]Ayr. 1912 G. Cunningham Verse 33:
He coontit his buttons and spat in his face, And then gied him foogie — an unco disgrace.Arg.¹ 1939:
An obsolete schoolboy phrase current fifty years ago. When two boys were making for a fight, a third boy, putting them face to face, placed his closed fists one above the other and called out “Spit over the bottle.” Whichever of the two spat over the fists thereby declared his willingness to fight. This was followed by the injunction, “Gie him the foodge,” a light provocative tap by the willing one in the chest of the other.

5. A truant from school (Rs.¹ 1911; ‡Abd.¹⁵ 1953); an absentee, deserter. Also attrib.Abd. 1877 G. Macdonald M. of Lossie lviii.:
An' wha ir ye for a fudgie-fisher, to gi'e coonsel ohn speired?

II. adj. Cowardly (Rxb. 1806 J. Hogg Poems 93, 1923 Watson W.-B.); in flight, fugitive, retreating. Rare.Rxb. 1808 A. Scott Poems 31:
But d'ye na mind, when floods began to dry, When fugie seas wi' Tweed were rowin by.em.Sc. 1999 James Robertson The Day O Judgement 15:
O Judas an yer britherheid,
Cum nou afore him on yer knees;
Ye fugie band that nae-sayed Christ
Or sellt him for a wheen bawbees.

III. v. †1. To be outlawed. Cf. Fugitate.Abd. 1880 G. Webster Crim. Officer 21:
He hed been citet till a Circuit afore that upo' twa-three o' the chairges, an' was fugiet an' ootlaw't.

2. To take to flight, to flee; to funk, to shrink from, back out of (a contest, etc.).Sc. 1826 Wilson Noctes Amb. (1855) I. 118:
Then he skraighs out fire and murder, and doon the loan as fast's he can fugy.Abd. 1952:
I was gled ye pat your bull tae the Show; I was some feart ye wad fugie.

‡3. Specif.: to play truant from school (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 55, fuggie; Rs.¹ 1911, fudge; ne.Sc. 1948). Combs.: fuggie-bell(ie), fuggie-the-squeel, a truant (Gregor).Bnff. 1861 Banffshire Jnl. (6 Aug.):
Scarcely a day passed that some boy did not “fugie” or fly the school.Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr Duguid 43:
Mony a happy thochtless hour . . . found us fugieing the schule to herry nests in the Leddyha'.Bnff. 1933 M. Symon Deveron Days 36:
It cried, “Ye jaud, ye fuged the school.”Abd. 1939 Huntly Express (5 May):
The archway, or “the Bow,” as it was called by the young rascals who played truant or “fudgied and gaed throu' the Bow.”