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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.

GRUIP, n., v. Also grup(e), groop, †group(e), grøp, grip(e), greap, †graep; greep, †greip (n.Sc.). [I., m., s.Sc. grøp, gryp, grɪp, grʌp; n.Sc., Per. gri:p; Ork., sm.Sc., Uls. gru:p]

I. n. 1. The gutter or drain in a byre (Nai. 1813 W. Leslie Agric. Nai. & Mry., Gl., greep; Cld. 1825 Jam., grip; Bnff., Abd. 1855 J. C. Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 723, greep; Sh. c.1870 in Jak. (1928), grup s.v. grøbi; Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl.; Fif., Lth., Ayr. 1915–23 Wilson, grup, grip; Ork. 1929 Marw., groop, gruip). Gen.(exc. Sh.)Sc. Also in n.Eng. dial.Sc. 1769 D. Herd Sc. Songs (1776) II. 201:
The mucking of Geordy's byre, And shooling the grupe sae clean.Ayr. 1811 W. Aiton Agric. Ayr. 120:
But it seems preferable to range them in rows, the width of the byre with a grip between every two rows, into which both can drop their dung.Sc. 1820 Blackwood's Mag. (Nov.) 201:
Jenny . . . was neither to bin' nor to haud, but out o' a' reason, rinning up and down the groupe, like a creature clean dementit.Abd. 1855–7 Trans. Highl. Soc. 450:
Cess-pools of cast metal are placed at regular intervals along the greeps of the stables and byres.Fif. 1864 W. D. Latto T. Bodkin v.:
The first attempt at milkin' her . . . began an' endit wi' my mither an' me bein' coupit on oor hurdies i' the grip amang the shairin'.s.Sc. 1871 H. S. Riddell Poet. Wks. I. 4:
And sae he wan the dad a wap, . . . That sent him sidelang in the grupe.Arg. 1882 Argsh. Herald (3 June):
She was married in muckle tackety shoon juist as she cam oot o' the gruip.Kcb. 1897 T. Murray Frae the Heather 44:
When the milker sits down on the stool wi' the stoup, It's jist ten tae ane she'll be neist i' the groop.Bch. 1929 W. Littlejohn Cottar Stories 34:
An archway of rantrie and red thread was made over the byre door when the cow was taken out the first time after calving. Peat, coals and salt were put in the “greep” for her to pass over, and a cow so treated was witch proof.Kcd. 1932 “L. G. Gibbon” Sunset Song 36:
With that he up with a handful of sharn and splattered it all over young Gordon and then rolled him in the greip till he was a sight to sicken a sow from its supper.Ayr. 1951 Stat. Acc.³ 760:
The byres have a shallow “grip” and wide gangway, all cement for easy cleaning.Abd. 1988 Jack Webster Another Grain of Truth (1989) 182:
A quiet tear was wiped away and at yokin' time he was down the greip as usual to muck out and feed the nowt, with a spit or a curse about the pipe that wouldn't draw and, in time, the deep rumble of a laugh.

Comb.: grip grape, a fork or graip for lifting dung out of the byre-gutter (Ayr.⁴ 1928).

2. A ditch, a trench, esp. one for draining a field (Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl., gripe; Mry.¹ 1925, greap; Ork. 1929 Marw., grip; Ork., Abd. 1955); the runnel at the bottom of a peat-bank (Sh. c.1870 in Jak. (1928); Bnff.⁵ 1926); the rill from a spring (Ork. 1955). Also dim. gripple (Sc. 1909 Colville 292). Common in Eng. dial. in form grip(e), gripple (Nhp., e.An.).Sc. 1814 J. Sinclair Agric. Scot. II. 451:
Very small and narrow cuts, commonly called Grips, are very useful in the wet hollows of smooth pastures, to receive, and carry off from the surface, the rain-water as it falls.Sc. 1829 Quarterly Jnl. Agric. II. 99:
All the shovellings should be thrown back from the edges of the “graeps,” or small ditches, which are thus made temporary canals to carry off superfluous water.Sc. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm I. 630:
In every variety of soil, ploughed . . . for winter, care should be taken to have plenty of channels, or gaws, or grips, as they are usually termed in Scotland, so as surface water may . . . escape.Per. 1911 in A. G. Tansley Brit. Veg. 294:
The drainage of wet land by open “sheep drains” or “grips” cut in the surface to carry off surplus water.Ork. 1922 J. Firth Reminisc. 2:
The Greeny Grip flowed for about three chains from the moss dyke, when it suddenly disappeared underground . . . About the centre of the ground covering the grip, there was a round hole.

‡3. “A large vessel, sunk in the barn-floor, in which the husks are loosened from the corn by stamping it with the feet” (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), grøp); “a receptacle built in the corner of a barn for holding corn” (Sh. 1914 Angus Gl., grup).

4. A groove (Sh. 1914 Angus Gl., ‡Sh. 1955).

II. v. To groove, “to cut a groove in a board or piece of wood for fitting into a corresponding edge” (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), grøp, ‡Sh. 1955). Gen. found in pa.p. in conjunction with sekk, †sex. See Sex.Abd. 1698 E. Bain Merchant Guilds (1887) 245:
Daills dighted upon the ane syde and sex and greeped for less price than three shillings four pennies for ilk dail, and ilk clift at three shillings four pennies sex and greeped.Sh. 1914 Angus Gl.:
Grüpet-an-sekket. Grooved and checked; the manner of putting boards together, which we now call ploughing.