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 1960 (SND Vol. V). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

HOSE, n., v.¹ Sc. forms and usages:

A. Forms: Sing. hose, hoes, and by back formation ho(e) (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Cai. 1902 E.D.D.; Rnf. c.1915; Mry., Abd., Kcd. 1957); pl. hose, arch. hosen, with double pl. ¶hosens. Dim. hosey. For comb. ho-tap see B. below.Sc. 1716 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 72:
The Bride was now laid in her Bed, Her left Leg Ho was flung.Abd. 1768 A. Ross Helenore (S.T.S.) 115:
Gin anes they come, an' things nae at a close, Better your feet, man, baith were in ae hose.Sc. 18th c. in Sc. Song (Whitelaw 1843) 200:
Your hosens, laird, are baith to darn.Slk. 1807 Hogg Mountain Bard 193:
On ilka leg a ho had he.Kcb. 1814 W. Nicholson Tales 7:
The left leg hoe they now prepare, An' circle roun', wi' anxious care, To see wha fortune wad decide To be the niest bridegroom and bride.Ayr. 1912 G. Cunningham Verse 30:
Baith sarks and hosen Tho' fresh and bonnie, white and clean.

B. Usages:

1. The sheath enclosing an ear of corn (‡n.Sc. 1825 Jam.; m.Lth.¹ 1957). Also in n. and e.Eng. dials. Phr. †worried in the hoe, “applied to grain during severe drought when the ear is so compressed in its socket in its size and scarcely able to force its way” (Rxb. a.1838 Jam. MSS. X. 137).Ayr. 1802 Farmer's Mag. (Aug.) 390:
Opening the socket, or hose, as it is called, when the number of grains are all formed and just ready to appear.Ags. 1813 J. Headrick Agric. Frf. 299:
The disease of smut appears to be propagated from the seed in so far as it is found in the ears before they have burst from the hose or seed-leaves.Mry. 1822 Farmer's Mag. (Aug.) 374:
Barley will not be half a crop. It has not only been injured by the severe drought, but by a small worm which has eaten the ear in the hose.Mearns 1844 W. Jamie Muse 68:
The daisy did bloom, and the corn in the hose.

2. The socket for the handle on any metal implement such as a spade, fork or rake (I.Sc., Cai., Fif. 1957); the neck of a golf-club, where the head is fitted into the shaft (Fif. 1962); in mining: a rope shackle, an iron clasp at the end of a rope (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 37).Sc. 1743 R. Maxwell Select Trans. 96:
You may make an iron Instrument . . . with a Hose or Socket, as a Fork is made for holding of a Pole or Shaft; which being fixed into the Hose, it may be thrust down into the Earth.Sc. 1849 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 36:
The prongs are connected with a hose, into which a wooden helve, with a short cross handle, is fastened.Sh. 1899 Shetland News (13 May):
I tried ta prise up da hoes o' da tusker.

3. Combs.: (1) hose-doup, the medlar, Mespilus germanica (Rxb. 1825 Jam.). Cf. how-doup, id., s.v. How, adj., 6. This may be rather from †hose, breeches; (2) ho(se)-fish, o-fish, the cuttle-fish, Sepia officinalis (Sc. 1808 Jam.; e.Lth. 1808 Scots Mag. (Jan.) 37, o-, e.Lth., Bwk. 1911, ho-). Cf. Hosack, id., and H, 1. (3); (3) hose-grass, -gerse, meadow soft grass, Holcus lanatus (Ayr. 1825 Jam., 1863–5 Trans. Highl. Soc. 314); (4) hose-loom, a loom designed and arranged for weaving narrow tubular cloths (Rnf. c.1915); †(5) hose-net, a small net, shaped like a stocking, fixed to a pole and used for fishing in small streams (Sc. 1808 Jam.); hence fig. = a position from which it is difficult to escape (Ib.). Also hoy's net, ¶hoes nett; ‡(6) ho-tap, a dice-patterned stocking without a foot worn as a kind of gaiter by the Highland Regiments before the first World War (Per. 1900).(2) Fif. 1710 R. Sibbald Fif. & Knr. 54:
Of these there are in this firth these following: Loligo, the Slieve Fish; our Fishers call it the Hose-fish, or the Anchor-fish, 'tis some three Foot long.Arg. 1845 Stat. Acc.² VII. 283:
Like the hose or razor-fish, it is only to be found at very low water.(3) Ayr. 1811 W. Aiton Agric. Ayr. 287:
Hose-grass, or Yorkshire fog (holcus lanatus), is next to ryegrass, the most valuable grass, and that in most general use.(5) Sc. 1715 Letters relating to the '15 (1730) 59:
If it please God to give this Detachment a safe passage, he shall have our Enemies in a Hose-net.Sc. 1732 Chrons. Atholl and Tullibardine Families II. 386:
I have the burns for the Hoes nett besides.Sc. 1791 Magopico 33:
Some tarred sticks once brought Hannibal and his host out of a terrible hose-net.Abd. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XVI. 389:
Tenants who live on the banks of a burn sometimes build a fish-garth, or dam, with an opening to receive a kind of osier basket, or what they call an hose-net for catching fish.Sc. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxxiv.:
They had made a fine hosenet for me.Slk. 1818 Hogg Wool-Gatherer (1874) 66:
He was fishing wi' Hoy's net.

II. v. To remove the bark round the base of a tree before felling (Per. 1900). Hence hoser, a kind of chisel for doing this (Id.).Sc. 1878 Trans. Highl. Soc. 140:
By hoseing or ringing the trees a year prior to felling.Bte. 1911 Trans. Bte. Nat. Hist. Soc. IV. 30:
Previous to cutting down the trees [oaks] and in order to save waste of bark, 3 feet of the bark of the base of the tree is removed — what is termed “hosing.”