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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

MOSH, n.² In the child's game of marbles: a hollow scooped in the ground in which the target marble is placed (Rnf. 1956, Fif., m.Lth., wm.Sc. 1963). Most freq. in dim. forms moshie, -y, ¶mooshie, a game of marbles using three such hollows at regular intervals. Comb. moshie-school, a gathering of boys to play this game (m.Sc. 1963).Gsw. 1900 Gsw. Evening News (21 June 1947):
When playing marbles, the saucer-shaped depression in the ground (made by revolving on one's heel) was called a “moshie.”Gsw. 1904 “H. Foulis” Erchie xiv.:
It's better for the puir wee smouts nor moshy in the back-coort, and puttin' bunnets doon the stanks.Lnk. 1910 W. Wingate Poems (1919) 74:
And reddies and stanies for “mooshie” or “ring,” And big, jorry bullets — she keepit them a'.Gsw. 1947 J. F. Hendry Fernie Brae i. iv.:
They played moshie, a queer game of marbles involving three holes in the ground, spaced out evenly.Gsw. 1951 R. J. Drummond Lest We Forget 19:
Another game was played with marbles. A cup, called a mosh, was dug within 18 inches of a stone wall. In it each boy put a jarrybool — commies were scouted, glassies were too costly. Then each player from a mark about two or three yards from the mosh tried to knock bools out of the mosh and catch the bool thrown on its rebound from the wall. If he did not catch it, the bools knocked out were put back in the mosh. If he did, he won the marbles knocked out.Gsw. 1957 Northern Scot (16 Feb.):
Moshie, on the other hand, required . . . a pavement of packed cinder or blaze. Only on such a surface could you dig the three depressions, a palm wide, a knuckle deep, that formed the court, or rink, or pitch upon which this game was played . . . the object of the game was to play a sort of clock golf from one hole to the next, up, down, up, down and finally “up for smowt,” whatever that may have meant.Gsw. 1958 C. Hanley Dancing in the Streets 53:
Quite grown-up boys . . . joined the moshie schools in the coup behind the Honeymoon Building in Shettleston Road, where you could always find three decent holes set in the correct triangle by some previous moshie school.Gsw. 1972 Molly Weir Best Foot Forward (1974) 26:
The dirty washing could be kept there too, and my skipping ropes, and the bools and the jawries we used for our games at moshie, ... wm.Sc. 1979 Robin Jenkins Fergus Lamont 32:
In gaslit winter we kept to the streets, closes and backcourts. There we played Bethlehem, run-sheep-run, hop-step-and-jump, bubbly-jock, kick-the-knacket, moshie, cat-and-bat, and others I forget, ... Gsw. 1987 Matt McGinn McGinn of the Calton 22:
As children we played in that street at 'Shops' and Release the Box and Kick the Can and cards and rounders and boxing and singing and peever and moshie ...