Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GUIDE, v., n. Sc. usages:

I. v. 1. tr. To manage, control (things), esp. to manage or use (money, etc.) economically, sparingly, with care (Bnff.¹² 1860; I. and n.Sc., Ags., Fif., Dmf. 1955). Rarely intr. Adj. combs. ill-guided, mismanaged (Abd.², Slg.³, Edb.¹ 1947); weel-guidit (Sh. 1955).Sc. 1701 W. Fraser Annandale Family Bk. (1894) II. 210:
Some think the last war was ill guided and concluded.w.Lth. 1718 News from Bathgate 9:
We gain the cause, if we guide cannalie.Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 63:
Better guide well, as work sore. And indeed good Management will very much excuse hard Labour.Ayr. 1792 Burns My Nanie, O vi.:
My riches a 's my penny-fee, An' I maun guide it cannie, O.Fif. 1806 A. Douglas Poems 168:
The Hiney-Moon will ne'er gang done, If guidit weel an' a' that.Sc. 1819 Scott Bride of Lamm. xii.:
“Aye, and does he guide the gear too?” said Caleb, . . “Ilka penny on't.”Rxb. 1821 A. Scott Poems 27:
As harst time comes but ance a-year . . . Let's guide her gifts wi' frugal care.Sc. 1824 S. E. Ferrier Inheritance II. xxvii.:
I didn't believe she had one [cook] that . . . knew how to guide a sheep's head and trotters.Dmb. 1846 W. Cross Disruption xxviii.:
It was mair by chance than gude guiding that your siller wasna clean lost.Bnff. 1870 Banffshire Jnl. (1 March):
It's only ill-guided gear that winna last.Sc. 1893 Stevenson Catriona xv.:
The rock was proveesioned frae the shores with vivers, the thing was ill-guided, and there were whiles when they had but to fish and shoot solans for their diet.Kcb. 1897 66th Report Brit. Ass. 459:
Here's health, wealth, wit t'guide it.Abd. 1912 J. Stephen Donside Lilts 7:
I beddit ear' at nicht, Because it wis ma faither's rule Tae try an' guide the licht.Sh. 1925 J. Hunter Sketches 105:
A süre sign o' plenty o' money or dan want o' sense ta guide it.m.Sc. 1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood i.:
A woman o' mense and sense — the manse o' Woodilee will be well guidit.Abd. 1955:
Guide the flour, the barrel's near teem.

Hence (1) guider, a manager, administrator, in comb. good guider, a capable, economical housewife (Bnff.² 1940; Sh. 1955); (2) guideship, (a) management (Bnff.⁷ 1927; Sh., Abd., Kcd. 1955); (b) a controllership.(1) Sc. 1709 Compend of Securities 58:
With the special Advice and Consent of the said Father as Tutor, Guider and Administrator of the Law for him.(2) (b) Sc. 1843 Carlyle Past & Present iv. i.:
A spiritual Guideship, a practical Governorship . . . have established themselves.

2. Specif.: To arrange (a fire), as when adding fresh fuel (Fif. 1955). Cf. 5. (2).

3. To treat, use, handle, look after, care for (a person or animal). Comb. ill-guide, to ill-use, maltreat (Sh., Abd., Kcd., Ags., Fif., Dmf. 1955). Hence ppl.adj. ill-guidit, ill-used (Ib.); badly brought up (Dmf. 1955).Ags. 1719 W. M. Inglis Ags. Parish (1904) 92:
He had young children and no person to guide them.Bte. 1724 Session Bk. Rothesay (1931) 383:
To give instanter from the collections . . . 6s. weekly to any who will guide Mary Wood.n.Sc. 1738 J. Fraser Memoirs (Wodrow Soc.) 19:
Thro' Grief, and ill Diet and ill Guiding, I took a bloody Flux.Abd. 1768 A. Ross Helenore 62:
An' our ain lads, albuist I say't my sell, But guided them right cankardly an' snell.Sc. 1822 Scott F. Nigel xxxv.:
There are few, . . . either of fools or of wise men, ken how to guide a woman.Slk. 1829 Hogg Shepherd's Cal. I. 29:
Reckless of death from the way he had been guidit.Rnf. 1861 J. Barr Poems 8:
She was her mither's only bairn, And brawly she was guided.Abd. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb xv.:
A body's mad to see the wye't they hed been guidin' the beasts.Ags. 1880 J. E. Watt Poet. Sk. 80:
An' left us instead his wee ill-guidit wean.Rxb. 1889 R. Murray Hawick Songs 57:
Aw'm Pawkie Paiterson's auld grey yaud, Sei how they're guiden mei!Sh. 1898 J. Burgess Tang 204:
Bob Ertirson 'll be guidin you the same as he done me.Mry. 1927 E. B. Levack Lossiemouth 40:
She wis left wi' er grannie, pure craiter, an' wis that sair ill-guidet 'at I took 'er tae gie 'er a hame.

Hence (1) guidement, care, careful treatment (Ags. 1955); (2) guid(e)ship, treatment, usage (Sh., Abd., Kcd., Ags. 1955). Combs. ill-guideship (Abd.⁵ 1931; Sh., Abd., Kcd. 1955), guid-guideship (Sh. 1955).(1) Ags. 1853 W. Blair Chron. Aberbrothock xvii.:
She needit guidement, an' a' that.(2) Abd. 1768 A. Ross Helenore 62:
Gar'd them work hard, an' litle sust'nance gae, That I was even at their guideship wae.Abd. 1865 G. Macdonald Alec Forbes lxxxv.:
It's a sair thing, sirs, that . . . a jined member o' the same church should meet wi' sic ill-guideship as I hae met wi' at the han's o' Mr Crann.Sh. 1898 Shetland News (19 Nov.):
If auld Donal' o' da Leans 'id seen guidship laek dat, be me saul dey'd been wigs apo' da green.Abd. 1950 Buchan Observer (3 Jan.):
This sort of “guidship” was not reserved for the female sex, but dealt out in no niggardly fashion to dissolute husbands, and the like.

4. Refl. To behave, to look after or conduct (oneself) (Sh., Abd., Fif. 1955). Also in Yks. and Lin. dial.Abd. 1867 A. Allardyce Goodwife 14:
Gen young fowk winna guide themselves, Gray heeds they'll never claw.Sc. 1896 Stevenson Weir of Hermiston vi.:
Is this the gait to guide yersel' on the way hame frae kirk?

5. In excls. and phrs.: (1) guide (u)s, — ye, contr. for God guide us (you), an excl. of surprise or consternation; (2) guide-the-fire, n., a poker (Fif. 1808 Jam.). Cf. 2. above; (3) guide-the-gate, n., a halter for a horse (Dmf. Ib.); (4) to guide the gully, see Gully.(1) Ayr. 1822 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage 217:
Or, guide us! whare wou'd be the next generation?Edb. 1828 D. M. Moir Mansie Wauch (1898) x.:
Do ye no think there is sic a thing as ghaists? Guide ye, man, my grannie could hae telled as muckle about them.ne.Sc. 1884 D. Grant Lays 13:
“Preserve's! and guide's! fat's this?” cried Meg.

II. n. 1. A manager, controller, gen. with reference to money or property (Sh., Abd., Ags. 1955).Sc. 1782 J. Sinclair Ob. Sc. Dial. 26:
To be a good guide of any thing. To be a good husband, or manager, of any thing.Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality xxxix.:
Ye will hae gear. Heaven mak ye a gude guide o't.Rnf. 1819 Harp of Rnf. (Motherwell) 72:
For I'm a gude guide o' the warld, I ken whan to haud and to gi'e.Sc. 1881 A. Mackie Scotticisms 57:
You are not a good guide of your paper.Mry. 1887 A. G. Wilken Peter Laing 20:
I was never jist a vera gweed guide o' mysel, an' sometimes I lived a raither roch life, drinkin', an' so on.Ayr. 1895 Burns Chronicle (1952) 2:
He was an ill guide o' a beast.Cai. 1900 E.D.D.:
A prudent economical wife is said to be “a geed guide,” and if otherwise, “an ill guide.”Abd.²⁷ 1954:
Of one who has been a debauchee: “he's been an awfu ull guide o' 'imsel.”

2. One of a team building corn stacks in harvest who directs operations from the ground regarding symmetry, etc. (Kcb., Dmf. 1955).