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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.

GUSHET, n. Also obs. forms gushat, -it, guschet, goos(h)et, gusshet, goushet. Sc. forms and usages of Eng. gusset. [Gen.Sc. ′gʌʃət]

1. An ornamental pattern in silk thread on a stocking, a clock.Mry. 1719 E. D. Dunbar Social Life (1865) 186:
There is noe scarlet stockings with a gold-coloured gushett, to be had at this place.Sc. 1726 Ramsay T.T.Misc. (1876) I. 195:
Nae silken hose, with gooshets fine, Or shoon with glancing laces.Abd. 1754 R. Forbes Shop Bill (1777) 11:
An' first o' hose I hae a' fouth, . . . Baith grae an' russet, Wi' different clocks; bat yet in truth We ca' it gushet.Peb. 1817 R. Brown Lintoun Green 12:
He'd flame-like gushets, to his thighs Half up, on stockings blue.Edb. 1828 D. M. Moir Mansie Wauch (1898) vi.:
Busked out in his best, with . . . silk stockings, with open-steek gushats.

2. A pocket near the arm-pit of a jacket or coat, a breast pocket (Cai., Ayr., Kcb. 1955). Cf. oxter-pouch s.v. Oxter.Abd. 1867 W. Anderson Rhymes 68:
While forth frae his gushet he drew A black leather book.

3. (1) A triangular piece of land, esp. one lying between two adjacent properties, a nook; in ploughing or reaping: a three-cornered section of short furrows or standing crop at the corner of an irregularly-shaped field (Sh., ne.Sc., Ags., Fif., Ayr. 1955). Dim. gushetie. Freq. attrib. in place-names, e.g. Gushetfaulds in Glasgow, and combs. below. Also in e.Yks. dial.Abd. 1716 S.C.Misc. (1842) 97:
With granaries, stables, . . . close adjoining, and with the heath and muire reaching in angles or goushets to the gate.Sc. 1780 Caled. Mercury (Nov.) 29:
There is to be exposed to public roup . . . That Gushet of Ground lying to the north of Constitution Hill.Lth. 1829 G. Robertson Recollections 587:
The old ridges that still remain, in all their distorted forms occasion many gushets, or fractions of ridges, adjacent to the straight fence.Abd. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb xlii.:
Clinkstyle's wastmost intoon shift rins in wi' a lang nib, an' a gushetie o' finer lan' there is not upo' the place.Fif. 1946 J. C. Forgan Maistly 'Muchty 15:
A wee wimplin' burn in the gushet near by, Splashin' chuckies an' rocks as it fa's.Abd. 1954 Huntly Express (15 Oct.):
When we came to the last bout of the cutting — we always ended up with a “gushet.”

(2) The corner of a building; an oddly-shaped corner in a building (Ags. 1955).Lnk. 1922 T. S. Cairncross Scot at Hame 57:
Ye heard his lang lauch soun' Roun' the gusshet 'or ye saw him.Bnff. 1939 J. M. Caie Hills and Sea 67:
A biggin' like thon tae design, That wan'ers an' trails, A' gushets an' ga'les.

4. Combs.: (1) gushet-house, gusset-, a house standing at a corner and forming an angle between two roads (Sc. 1905 E.D.D. Suppl., gusset-); (2) gushet-neuk, = 3. (1) above (Abd.⁷ 1925; Abd., Ags. 1955); also as the name of a farm (see first quot.).(1) Lnk. 1869 A. Wallace Sk. Life 88:
All our readers doubtless know what a “gusset-house” means — the end or front house in a line of buildings that is pushed forward into another street or thoroughfare, dividing it into two.Fif. 1897 “S. Tytler” Lady Jean's Son viii.:
Then there were more high “gusset” houses down an archway.Inv. 1905 J. Fraser Reminisc. 91:
That gushet-house at the corner of Wells Street and Muirtown Street is the Steamboat Inn.(2) Abd. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb xxxvi.:
Go along the dykeside through the field, and round by the Backhill, so as to steer quite clear of Gushetneuk.Abd. 1918 W. A. Mutch Hev ye a Spunk? 38:
They say, “Faur noo were ye hit?” “In a gushet neuk at Passchendale. Hiv ye been hitten yet?”