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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GLAIKIT, adj. Also glaiket, †glakit, -et, -ed; †glaekit (Abd. 1813 D. Anderson Poems 77), †glaickit (Ork. 1880 Dennison Sketch-Bk. 97), gleckit (Edb. 1791 J. Learmont Poems 300), -et; †glaykit (Rxb. 1801 Leyden Compl. Scot. 338), †gleaket (Lnk. 1827 J. Watt Poems 60), †glaiget (Lnk. a.1832 W. Watt Poems (1860) 84), †glaigit (S.D.D.), †gleikit (Mry. 1813 W. Leslie Agric. Mry. 456); gleekit; glacked. [Sc. ′glekɪt; Per. + ′gləik-]

1. Stupid, foolish; thoughtless, irresponsible, flighty, frivolous (gen. applied to women). Gen.Sc.Sc. 1706 J. Watson Choice Coll. I. 9:
And there will be Girn-again Gibbie and his glaked Wife Jeanie Bell.Edb. 1773 R. Fergusson Poems (1925) 84:
There rest him weel; for eith can we Spare mony glakit gouks like he.Lnk. c.1779 D. Graham Writings (1883) II. 116:
She had two idle glaket sluts of daughters.Per. 1801 John Ramsay of Ochtertyre Letters (1966) 49:
Last night Mrs Drummond having sent me a salmon by her coachman Johnnie Tosh who is a fine creature but very glacked, almost poetical. Sc. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet ii.:
To think the lad should have . . . bolted off this gate, after a glaikit ne'er-do-weel.Sh. 1886 “G. Temple” Britta 52:
A young girl was more trouble than assistance in a house, “Lasses were glaikit and needed looking after.”Fif. 1894 J. W. M'Laren Tibbie & Tam 80:
Picture my auld cronie . . . stravaigin' aboot the Braids in a glaikit manner howkin' for the lost ba's!Arg. 1901 N. Munro Doom Castle xxxv.:
Just think o' Sim gettin' the dirty gae-bye frae a glaikit lassie hauf his age.Rxb. 1913 in Trans. Hawick Arch. Soc. 51:
Town pipers seem to have been rather a glaikit lot, and by their indifference and neglect of duty, to have caused the municipal authorities much trouble.Sc. 1935 I. Bennet Fishermen xxvi.:
Sandy was now a long-legged, glecket loon, with a shock of tow-coloured hair.wm.Sc. 1954 Robin Jenkins The Thistle and the Grail (1994) 143:
"Was it Lizzie herself, the glaikit besom?"
"Lizzie can scarcely wipe her ain neb, far less write. m.Sc. 1986 Colin Mackay The Song of the Forest 64:
"That's just the thing I saw, Wattie! There in the kirkyard coming down from the fields and over the burn without touching the water, they came, and bone white they were, and their eyes glaikit and gawping, some of them thin and wasted and some that torn and gashed with great hanging wounds in them. ... " Sc. 1988 Scotsman (27 Dec) 8:
If our MPs are glaikit enough to allow the White Paper's plans for TV to pass unamended through the House then Public Service Broadcasting, as we have known it, will cease. Ags. 1988 Raymond Vettese The Richt Noise 91:
ye'd soon, I dootna, tak my meisure,
and gey soon lauch me oot o
this glaiket business m.Sc. 1989 James Meek McFarlane Boils the Sea 45:
They had opened the door, two glaikit boys of eleven and eight, their eyes blinking humourlessly behind square silver spectacles, clad in quaint cardigans and corduroy trousers. Abd. 1990 Stanley Robertson Fish-Hooses (1992) 120:
Och, the auld woman wis telling the young eens aa aboot lads, and ither rubbish that were making them laugh and giggle, and gan aa very gleekit. Arg. 1992:
He's a wile gleckit crettur thon. Ye feel sorry for im. Cai. 1992 James Miller A Fine White Stoor 139:
'It's a wife he's needing to keep him under control.'
- The old goat. What does it matter to him:? What can I do now? Standing here like a glaiked chiel. Abd. 1996 Sheena Blackhall Wittgenstein's Web 8:
Quines war that glaikit, he thocht, lowpin up an doon fur oors, swingin a towe roon their heids. Aa a skippin towe did wis lift the dubby watter frae the orra puils at their feet an skitter it ower their heids. m.Sc. 1996 Christopher Brookmyre Quite Ugly One Morning (1997) 2:
What this situation had needed, what it had been audibly crying out for, was a glaikit, baw-faced, irritating, clumsy, thick, ginger-heided bastard to turn up and start cracking duff jokes, and here was PC Gavin Skinner to answer the call. Sc. 2003 Scotsman (28 Mar) 14:
Glaikit, tousled, stuttering and oratorically moribund. Allan's attempts to convince are fatally undermined by the neon-lit word "Dense" flashing up periodically on his forehead.

Hence †(1) glaikitly, thoughtlessly, foolishly; “affectedly, pettishly” (Sc. 1911 S.D.D.); (2) glaikitness, glaikedness, (a) ineptitude, stupidity, carelessness; levity (Cai. 1900 E.D.D.; ‡Cai.⁷, Abd., m.Lth.¹, Bwk.² 1954); (b) affectation; over-fondness (Sc. 1911 S.D.D.).(1) Per. a.1837 R. Nicoll Poems (1842) 242:
If glaikitly we yokit, We wad aye be toilin' sair.m.Sc. 1986 Colin Mackay The Song of the Forest 39:
Another sat keening, rocking on her ankles. A third stared glaikitly at the dark line of trees. Sc. 1999 Scotland on Sunday (10 Jan) 37:
... sure enough, minutes into it I found myself gazing glaikitly at that staple shot of two policemen (one middle-aged and wise - he's been around, one young and impulsive - he's got lots to learn) sitting in a car muttering to each other and their colleagues further up the block whilst keeping their eyes fixed ahead.(2) (a) Sc. 1823 Lockhart Reg. Dalton III. 171:
Bid her have done wi' her glaiketness for a wee, and let's hear plain sense for ance.s.Sc. 1835 Wilson's Tales of the Borders I. 132:
Accidents that had happened him, and all through his glaikitness.Abd. 1899 W. D. Geddes Mem. J. Geddes 43:
Yet, for all his “glaikitness” in town matters, he was a good shrewd judge of the right side of a shilling.Cai. 1992 James Miller A Fine White Stoor 48:
But anyone who thought they could take advantage of this apparent glaikedness soon found themselves thinking again, because Jim Sinclair the joiner was a first-class craftsman and nobody's fool. Sc. 1997 Scotsman (27 Feb) 17:
I'm ...well, I was about to say exchanging pleasantries with my son, but "exchanging" implies a certain two-way transaction of information. He's sitting gazing, I suspect, through everything, drifting in a dwam, bobbing in a lulling lassitude of glaikitness, all Vivaldi concertinos, Associated Board theory studies and the meaning of 'allegro ma non troppo' receding blessedly behind him.

†2. Playful, full of pranks; wanton; sportive, roguish (of the eyes).Ayr. 1789 Burns To Dr Blacklock v.:
Ye glaikit, gleesome, dainty damies.Kcb. 1789 D. Davidson Seasons 47:
And ilk yaul-cuted heifer . . . In merriment, tossing her glaiket head Beneath thy wyme, licks down thy boozy lisk.Rxb. 1801 Leyden Complaynt Scot. 338:
A glaikit callan, a boy full of tricks.Ayr. 1823 Galt R. Gilhaize I. xxii.:
[He] took the errand to his mistress, from whom he soon came with a light foot and a glaikit eye.

†3. Deceitful, shifty.Sc. 1862 A. Hislop Proverbs 67:
Glib i' the tongue is aye glaiket at the heart. A smooth tongue betokens a deceitful heart.

†4. Over-fond “applied to a child too fond of its mother and refusing to be parted from her at any time” (‡Abd. 1905 E.D.D. Suppl.), over-petted (Fif.¹⁸ 1954); foolishly fond, “bewitched.”Abd. a.1807 J. Skinner Amusements (1809) 78:
A stately chiel, they ca' John Bull, Is unco thrang and glaikit wi' her.