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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

MAUT, n.¹, v. Also mawt, maat, ma't. Sc. forms and usages of Eng. malt. See P.L.D. § 78. [m:t, mɑ:t]

I. n. 1. Specif. with reference to malt as the basis of ale or whisky. Gen.Sc.; hence the drink itself, ale. Colloq. or dial. in Eng.Sc. 1718 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 78:
But the bauld Billy took his Maut, . . . And scour'd aff Healths anew.Abd. c.1760 J. Skinner Amusements (1809) 98:
That helps the Poet to create . . . Will never dreep frae draffy mawt.Rnf. 1788 E. Picken Poems 80:
Foul fa' the chiel' wha thinks't a faut, To meddle wi' the juice o' maut.Gsw. 1827 A. Rodger Poems 176:
A set o' maut-inspired whims, That end in perfect smoke, man.Per. 1835 R. Nicoll Poems 85:
Will I tell her I've plenty o' maut, meal, and milk — A stockin' o' guineas — a gown-breed o' silk?Abd. 1861 J. Davidson Poems 115:
To ope' “the sluice o' rot-gut” wine Afore they free the maut.Lnk. 1882 Songs & Ball. (Nimmo) 102:
But gie them a wee drap o' maut, Then they'll laugh at a' danger, and even face death.

2. Phrs.: (1) meal and maut, by metonymy: food and drink (Kcd., Ags. 1962); (2) meat an' maut, id. (Ags. 1962); (3) the maut gaes, is, wins, etc. abune the meal, ¶— meat, said of one who is drunk; (4) to get one's maut, to be intoxicated; (5) to hae in one's maut, id.; (6) to haud the maut, id.(1) Sc. 1726 Ramsay T.-T. Misc. (1876) I. 116:
For meal and mawt thou disna want.Sc. a.1784 Hobie Noble in Child Ballads No. 189 xxxv.:
Traitor Mains, That eats and drinks of meal and maut.Edb. 1791 J. Learmont Poems 168:
Had the guid-man o' mickle chair, Less meal and maut an' gusty ware.Kcb. 1810 R. H. Cromek Remains 59:
Kimmer gets maut, and Kimmer gets meal, And cantie lives Kimmer, right couthie an' hale.Fif. 1841 C. Gray Lays & Lyrics 222:
In maut and meal — in baps and bun.ne.Sc. 1881 W. Gregor Folk-Lore 161:
We sing for meal, we sing for maut.(2) Ayr. 1892 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage 285:
But wine an' wassail, meat an' maut, In raxin' routh beside.Fif. 1895 S. Tytler Kincaid's Widow i.:
Meat and maut often gang here like dub-water, nowadays.(3) Sc. 1776 D. Herd Sc. Songs II. 221:
The malt's aboon the meal the night.Sc. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet xi.:
If the maut gets abune the meal with you, it is time for me to take myself away.Rnf. 1870 J. Nicholson Idylls 127:
But after a' jokin', it's maybe as weel That the maut shouldna stan' in the place o' the meal.Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr. Duguid 99:
He never forgathered with Davie Miller but the maut was sure to win abune the meal with the twasome of them.m.Sc. 1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood xi.:
A muckle, black-avised, grippy incomer that nae man kens the get o' . . . sweirs like a dragon when the maut's abune the meat.Bnff. 1939 J. M. Caie Hills & Sea 44:
Tam was a thochtie fou, For the maut was abeen the meal.(4) wm.Sc. 1854 Laird of Logan 381:
Gin ye gat your maut, Ye ne'er heard the end o't.(5) Edb. 1865 W. Hutchison Tales 337:
An' the chiel will sune hae in his maut, Syne he'll forget it a'.(6) Mry. 1924 Swatches o' Hamespun 80:
She's skailed her saut, but hauds the maut That's made her fu's the Romach.

3. Combs.: (1) groanin maut, ale brewed to celebrate a birth. Cf. Eng. groaning beer, -drink, id.; (2) maut ale, ale brewed from malt; (3) maut-barn, a building where malt is prepared; (4) maut-bree, malt liquor. See Bree; (5) malt dub, a pond used for steeping malt; (6) mawt-kaesie, a basket for holding malt. See Kishie; (7) mautman, a maltman, a maltster (Cai., ne.Sc., Lth. 1962); (8) maut-siller, money paid for malt, specif. as an excise duty on its production. Freq. fig. in proverbial expressions (see quot.); (9) malt-stead, -steading, a building where malt is prepared. See Stead; (10) malt whisky, a whisky distilled from malted barley in a pot-still as opposed to a blended grain whisky.(1) Ayr. a.1790 Burns The Rantin Dog ii.:
O, wha will buy the groanin maut? . . . The rantin dog, the daddie o't!Sc. 1815 Scott Guy M. iii.:
Meg Merrilies descended to the kitchen to secure her share of the groaning malt.(2) Abd. 1922 Weekly Free Press (7 Jan.):
And Jean had produced a brew of “maut ale” that verily made “the lugs crack”.(3) Sc. 1753 W. Maitland Hist. Edb. 151:
Malt-barns, Breweries [etc.].Sc. 1761 Magopico 25:
Were churches to want steeples, the kirk might be taken for . . . the malt-barn, or the ale-house.Fif. 1896 D. S. Meldrum Grey Mantle 115:
He was coming from mending the coke-fire at his maut barns.(4) Abd. 1746 W. Forbes Dominie Depos'd (1765) 32:
He [Bacchus] drowned all my cares to preach With his maut-bree.(5) Kcb. 1743 Kcb. Testaments MS. (14 Oct.):
The little strand called the Seggiesyke strand or burn running down to the malt dubb on the west.(6) Ork. 1905 Orcadian Papers (Charleson) 38:
As a miel of malt was larger than a miel of bere, those [straw-baskets] intended for holding malt were called mawt-kaesies.(7) Lnk. 1816 G. Muir Cld. Minstrelsy 8:
Skinners an' ma'tmen, slaters, candle-makers.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 338:
Maltmen had always good ale about them, so were merry; hence arose the phrase, “as merry's a mautman”.Bwk. 1856 G. Henderson Pop. Rhymes 60:
Sandy Pae, the mautman, Is drinkin' wi' the sautman.Ayr. 1870 J. K. Hunter Life Studies 275:
The rain may do gude itherwise, but it 'ill no pay the mautman.Cai. 1916 J. Mowat Cai. Proverbs 6:
E warst time 'at oor wis, 'e maatman should get his keizie.(8) Sc. 1825 Jam.:
“That's ill-paid maut-siller”; a proverbial phrase signifying, that a benefit has been ill requited. . . . “Weel! ye've gotten your maut-siller, I think”; uttered as the language of ridicule, to one who may have been vain of some new scheme that has proved unsuccessful.(9) Sc. 1747 Caled. Mercury (28 Jan.):
That Tenement of Land, Barns and Maltsteads, consisting of 14 Roods of Land, lying in the Town of Innerlevin.Fif. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XIII. 125:
The malt and brew steadings . . . became useless, and soon fell into ruin.(10) Edb. 1812 W. Glass Caled. Parnassus 14:
Faith, mony a turn baith hard and sair 's Been dune on gude Maut Whisky O.Sc. 1888 Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed.) XXIV. 542:
Malt whisky is the product of malted barley alone, distilled in the ordinary pot-still.Sc. 1930 A. MacDonald Whisky 66:
The old single malt whiskies of the Highlands were, on the whole, too powerful and heavy for sedentary town-dwellers.Sc. 1958 J. Laver House of Haig 44:
About the middle of the nineteenth century, experiments began to be made by mixing different malt whiskies, older with younger, and more strongly flavoured with softer kinds in an endeavour to produce a blend which would be acceptable to all palates.

4. Derivs.: (1) mautie, (i) adj. containing malt, in comb. †mautie foals, cakes made with malt. See Fole, n.; (ii) n. curtailed dim. form of mautman, one who prepares malt in a distillery (Bnff. 1962); (2) mautster, malsterer, Sc. forms of Eng. maltster.(1) (i) Ork. 1877 Chambers's Jnl. (16 Dec.):
Arrived at Coubister he hastened to the kitchen where he found his wife engaged in baking mautie foals' — malt cakes — a dainty peculiar to Orkney.(2) Fif. 1725 E. Henderson Dunfermline (1879) 414:
The malt tax bill was ill receivit be malsterers of Dunfermling.Abd. 1820 A. Skene Poems 28:
Sk--e mautsters now may steep your bear, An' spread it careless on the fleer.

II. v. In ppl.adjs.: 1. wk. mautit, prepared from malt; full of malt, fig. in comb. weel-mautit, drunk (Abd. 1919 T.S.D.C.); 2. strong mauten, mawten, (i) of grain which has been insufficiently dried and thus has an unpleasant taste (Lnk. 1825 Jam.); (ii) of under-baked bread, heavy and moist (Sc. 1825 Jam.). See also Mauten, v.1. Per. 1857 J. Stewart Sketches 79:
Then awa wi' your mautit potation, A waucht o' pure water for me.