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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

RAMMLE, v., n. Also rammel, ramlle, rammil. Sc. forms and usages of Eng. ramble (Bwk. 1823 A. Hewit Poems 125, e.Lth. 1896 J. Lumsden Battle Dunbar 141). Cf. also Rummel, v. See P.L.D. § 62. [′rɑməl]

I. v. 1. To wander about without direction or purpose, esp. under the influence of drink (Bnff., Abd., Ags., Kcb., Uls. 1967). Ppl.adjs. rammel't, drunk (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. 341; s.Sc. 1967), rammlin, dissipated. Cf. II.Rxb. 1702 Trans. Hawick Archaeol. Soc. (1909) 37:
Drunk and rambling up and down the streets with a staff in his hand.wm.Sc. 1934 K. R. Archer Jock Tamson's Bairns 19:
Then ane the rammlin'est ane o' a', Cam' hame fu'-grown wi' a broken hert, A battert an' sabbin' chiel.

Comb. and deriv. rammel-headed, with wandering wits. Rare and obs. in Eng.; rammelsome, hot-headed, impetuous, blundering.Abd. 1824 G. Smith Douglas 8:
But ony thing amaist will dee W' rammel-headed chiels like me.Fif. 1864 W. D. Latto T. Bodkin ix.:
Gosh man! ye're a rammelsome hallion, for ye've dung the wind oot o' thae auld wives.

2. To romp, dance with gusto. Also in n.Eng. dial.Ags. 1790 D. Morison Poems 23:
Screw weel your pins an' banish hums To tulloch let us ramble Wi' vir this night.

3. In ppl. form ramlin and deriv. rammely, of a boy: fast-growing, tall, lanky (Sc. 1887 Jam.). Cf. Rummel, v.

II. n. A piece of noisy or riotous behaviour, a row, uproar, specif. of a drinking bout, a spree (ne.Sc., Fif., w.Lth., Slk. 1967). Phr. on the rammle.Gall. 1705 Session Bk. Minnigaff (1939) 169:
The persons concerned in this rammle being such, at lest the most part of them, as in every pairt of ther life were irregular.Gall. 1721 Ib. 376:
Alexander Bodan . . . confessed there had been a ramble upon Thursday past 15 days betuixt him and William Stewart and Agnes Young in the house of the said Agnes, but denys drunkness and suearing, but ouns undecent and unchristian expressions.Edb. 1884 R. F. Hardy Jock Halliday iii.:
I'm jalousin' yer faither maun hae been on the rammle again that he hesna written this while back.Dmf. 1894 J. Cunningham Broomieburn 109:
When he was on the rammle, there was nae daein wi' him.Bwk. 1903 R. Romanes Lauder 144:
There were several men and at least one woman who habitually got very drunk and continued so for days, being (as was said as matter of course) “on the rammle”.