Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1763-1832, 1916
[0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]
GREESH, n. Also greece, grece, grish. A stone abutment built against the gable wall inside a cottage, forming the back of the fireplace, "so that the fire might be thrown forward a foot or so into the room and still be under the 'box,' a wooden erection carrying the smoke out of the room." (Mry. 1909 Colville 150; ‡Inv. 1955). Dim. greeshie. Comb. kiln-grish. Also kill-grece. Cf. Greeshoch.Sc. 1763 "Theophilus Insulanus" Treatises on the Second Sight (1819) 109:
None of the Mistress of Garafad's women would stay in her kiln, because of a corpse in its linens, they frequently saw on the kiln-grish, or where corn is dried, a very unusual place indeed to lay corpses on!Ayr. 1790 J. Fisher Poems 149:
Within the same [a kiln pot] she made it [clue of yarn] stot. An' wall'd sae weel her arm That on the greesh she maist it broke. Lnk. 1832 C. Thomson Lesmahagow Martyrs (1928) 11:
The corpse was lifted, streaming with blood, and laid upon the kill-grece.Mry.1 1916:
The lugs o' the greeshie were formed by a flat stone projecting like a mantelpiece.
