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.
Quotation dates: 1764, 1822-1836, 1898-1908
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GIB, n.2 Also gibb, gibbie, gibby. Pet forms of Gilbert, Gibb being also freq. as a surname (Abd. 1739 Caled. Mag. (1788) 500; Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality ii.; Ayr. 1823 Galt Entail xii.; Sh. 1922 J. Inkster Mansie's Röd 7; Dmf. 1925 Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. 26). Gen.Sc. Comb. gib(b) cat (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 225, gibb-; m.Dmf.3 c.1920). A tom-cat, esp. one that has been castrated (Sc. 1808 Jam., gib(bie); Cai. 1900 E.D.D.; w.Dmf. 1899 Country Schoolmaster (Wallace) 348, gib(by); Ork., Peb., Kcb., Dmf. 1954). Also in Eng. dial. [′gɪb(i)]
1. A pet name given to a cat. Abd. 1764 Letter in R. Fergusson Poems (Grosart 1879) xlvi.:
She is suspicious of having offended her by saying something she has thought hurtful to Gibbie [a cat]'s character.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 176:
For him a shepherd's collie durst na bark, Nor a loving gibb-cat gie a mew.Dmf. 1836 A. Cunningham Lord Roldan I. ii.:
The warst word I hear is witch, and the warst deed that's done to me is hunting my gib-cat and pouing my plums.Kcb. 1898 Crockett Standard Bearer vii.:
I had been sitting, demure as a gib cat.Ork. 1908 Old-Lore Misc. I. viii. 321:
A hale lock mair o' sic nonsince aneuch tae mak' a gibbie speu.
Phr.: †gibby with the girds, a long pudding of the haggis order tied at intervals with string.Gall. 1822 Scots Mag. (Oct.) 423:
Suffice it to say, that neither haggies nor pudding, of every rank and authority, from the plebeian “white hause”, up to the imperial “gibby with the girds”, were absent.
†2. A name given to Old Father Time in quot. below.Abd. 1824 G. Smith Douglas 109:
Lat powder'd beau and pensy miss . . . Nor trust their bottle nor their dress, Nor yet their beauty; For gibby, wi' the scythe and glass, Will do his duty.
