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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SCRAE, n.¹, adj. Also scray, skrae, screa. [skre:]

I. n. 1. A stunted, shrivelled or underdeveloped person or animal (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 150; Ayr. 1930; ne.Sc. 1969). Comb. skrae-shankit, having thin, spindly legs.Sc. 1803 Scott Minstrelsy III. 363:
Lie still, ye skrae, There's Water-Kelpie's chap.Slk. 1822 Hogg Perils of Man II. 232:
His hard-headed Olivers and skrae-shankit Laidlaws.Fif. 1827 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd 136:
Lean skraes o' men, and sclender wives.Dmf. 1836 Carlyle Letters (Bliss 1953) 112:
He [J. S. Mill] seemed to me to be withering or withered into the miserablest metaphysical scrae, body and mind.Arg. c.1850 L. McInnes S. Kintyre (1936) 29:
I'm a poor cruichach, spalyin' scrae.Fif. 1883 W. D. Latto Bodkin Papers 75:
The next day I'll be as thin and ghaistly as a skrae.Bnff. 1927 Banffshire Jnl. (26 April) 6:
That's a gey peer skrae o' a coo.

2. A shrivelled dried-up object, something that has been exposed to too much heat, specif. an old shrunken shoe (Cai. 1969).Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 251:
‘Mickle Sorrow comes to the Screa, e'er the Heat come to the Tea'. Spoken when one holds his Shoe to the Fire to warm his Foot.s.Sc. 1825 Jam.:
A certain shoemaker, from his making shoes of bad leather, which were apt to shrivel and become hard, got the nickname of Scrimple-hard-scraes.Cai.⁸ 1934:
“Burnt to a scray”, over roasted or fried.

3. An ill-natured, carping person (Ayr. 1880 Jam.); a miser, skinflint (Cai. 1969).Ags. 1853 W. Blair Aberbrothock 77:
Thae nasty, insignificant skraes 'at canna keep the clap o' their hass steekit.Cai. 1940 John o' Groat Jnl. (26 March):
Feint a perlickid did 'e aald skray lave ahint him.

¶II. adj. Spare, meagre, lean, prob. adopted from scrae-shankit.Sc. 1846 Anon. Muckomachy 56:
But then, their wrappings Made mends for banes so very scrae.