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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

OORIE, adj. Also ourie, -(e)y, owrie, uri-; and dim. forms oorich(ie), oorickie. [′u:ri]

1. Of persons and things: dismal, gloomy, miserable-looking from cold or illness, cold and cheerless, depressing, dejected (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Uls. 1905 Uls. Jnl. Archaeol. 125; Sh., ne.Sc., Fif., Arg. 1964); “having a debauched or dissipated look” (Rxb. a.1838 Jam. MSS. XII. 164); “having the hair on end, like a horse overcome with cold” (Sc. 1802 J. Sibbald Chron. Sc. Poetry Gl.); of weather: dull and chilly, raw, black (Fif. c.1850 R. Peattie MS.). Also adv.Sc. 1715 News Letters 1715-16 (Steuart 1910) 54:
The horse were a litle rough and oury haird with the hervest rains.Ayr. 1785 Burns Winter Night iii.:
I thought me on the ourie cattle, Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle.Rnf. 1806 R. Tannahill Poems (1876) 312:
The lasses a' leugh, an' the carlin flate, But Maggie was sitting fu' ourie an' blate.Ayr. 1821 Galt Ayrshire Legatees 245:
She returned to her husband, who felt already some of the ourie symptoms of a henpecked destiny.Edb. 1822 R. Wilson Poems 48:
But ance a week its dinner cookit, — Nae wonner that it oury lookit!Per. 1842 R. Nicoll Poems (1855) 100:
Where ance the cozie fire was bien, The winter rain-drap owrie fa's.Bnff. 1844 T. Anderson Poems 90:
Whare achin' pain, or owrie sorrow Winna come to vex ye mair.wm.Sc. 1854 Laird of Logan 327:
He daundered doun closes, baith ourie and dark.Sc. 1865 J. W. Carlyle Letters (Froude 1883) III. 261:
But no amount of mere cleaning could give that room a clean look, with that oory, dingy paint and paper.Slg. 1898 J. M. Slimmon Dead Planet 173:
O some stood chitterin' ourie As feart to wet their taes.Abd. 1932 R. L. Cassie Scots Sangs 31:
Seg an' cats'-tail spread a net Owre an ourie, goorie bit, Fleer't wi' fog aye fickle.Sh. 1962:
Oorie o' risin' — loath to get out of bed, esp. from infirmity or illness.

Hence (1) oorich(ie), id. (Mry. c.1930); of a child: wise for its years, solemn and sagacious, Auld-farrant (‡Lnk. 1952, oorickie); (2) oorie-like, having a languid, exhausted appearance (Dmf. 1808 Jam.); (3) ooriness, chilliness, a shivering (Sc. 1825 Jam.).(1) Mry. 1873 J. Brown Round Table Club 268:
I wis cauld an' ourichie comin' doon the glen.Ags. 1897 A. Reid Bards of Angus 283:
Tho' cauld Winter be oorichie, cauldrife, an' eerie.(3) Ayr. 1913 “Kissock” Sc. and Eng. Poems 32:
A' as cauld as streaked deid Wi' ooriness did lye.

2. Of persons: lonely and sad, apprehensive, uneasy, affected by a feeling of the supernatural (Sh. 1964). Hence ooriesam, timorous (Sh. 1866 Edm. Gl.).Sh. 1877 G. Stewart Tales 4:
Ir ye no oorie sitten yoursell doon here?

3. Of things: eerie, uncanny, filled with foreboding, strange and disquieting (Dmf. 1938 Chambers's Jnl. (Nov.) 840; Sh. 1957 Sh. Folk Bk. III. 70, Sh. 1964). Also adv. Hence urisum, unpleasant-looking, forbidding.Fif. 1846 W. Tennant Muckomachy 7:
He carry'd aye about wi' him, On's lip, I trow, A hair-shagh, urisum and grim!Gsw. 1877 A. G. Murdoch Laird's Lykewake 21:
When, jist as she had spak' the words, oot on the laich door-stap An oorie fit was heard to fa'.Sh. 1892 J. Burgess Rasmie's Büddie 88:
Noo, oorie ower da stubbly rig, Da waandrin breezes nün.Dmf. 1917 J. L. Waugh Cute McCheyne 136:
A queer oorie kind o' a feelin' cam' ower me.Sc. 1926 H. M'Diarmid Drunk Man 26:
Your sallow leafs can never thraw, Wi' a' their oorie shakin'.Sc. 1951 Scots Mag. (Feb.) 410:
Stravaigin in an oorie glen ayont the Wester Sea.m.Sc. 1988 William Neill Making Tracks 33:
I heard a muckle dunt in the mirk nicht;
an oorie thing, I waukent in a fricht
gruppit, I thocht, atween the shears o fate. Ags. 1988 Raymond Vettese The Richt Noise 98:
We shauchelt there
stairched, stiff suits, stiff hair slairged owre
wi Brylcreem, sleekit dacklin feet
'fore God's oorie lair. em.Sc. 1991 Stuart McHardy in Joy Hendry Chapman 64 46:
an oorie sound o eldritch pain,
Come oot, come oot ye cannae hide
as an oolet hoots frae the ither side
come oot, come oot an face yer weird
wi sichtless een an bane-filled beard ... Dundee 2000 Matthew Fitt But n Ben A-Go-Go 49:
Finally, the haar o oorie licht vexin his een skailed tae reveal a panorama that dobbied him o braith.