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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SKINKLE, v.¹, n.¹, adj. Also skeenkle, skenkle. [skɪŋkl]

I. v. To glitter, gleam, sparkle, scintillate (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Per., Slg., wm.Sc. 1970); to have a bright showy appearance (wm.Sc. 1825 Jam.). Now chiefly poet. Vbl.n. skinklin, sparkle, radiance (Ayr. 1825 Jam.).Sc. 1765 Lord Thomas and Fair Annet in Child Ballads No. 73. A. xix.:
The cleading that Fair Annet had on It skinkled in their een.Rnf. 1791 A. Wilson Poems 205, 238:
Row't in a skinklan plaid . . . Ae night the lift was skinklan a' wi' starns.Ayr. 1791 Burns Pastoral Poet. iv.:
Squire Pope but busks his skinklin patches O' heathen tatters.Fif. 1827 W. Tennant Papistry 30:
Flee about on skinklin' wing, Like butterflies in days o' spring.Ayr. 1871 J. K. Hunter Life Studies 298:
I keepit the light skinklin on him.Abd. 1873 P. Buchan Inglismill 29:
Oor joys, like flow'rs, may bloom at mornin'-tide, At nicht, ae skinklin frost may lay their pride.Ayr. 1913 J. Service Memorables 4:
The mune touched wi' a fairy licht the windows of the aisles, silverin' and skeenklin' frae mony a corbel and crocket on the towers.Dmf. 1917 J. L. Waugh Cute McCheyne 7:
The polish wasna juist what you wad ca' skinklin'.Lnk. 1919 G. Rae Clyde and Tweed 99:
Syne rawed alang the smiddy bauks ilk ballant skenklin' hangs.Sc. 1926 H. McDiarmid Penny Wheep 46:
The skinklan' stars Are but distant dirt.Lnk. 1950:
It's time ye were in your bed. Your een are skinklin, i.e. blinking from sleepiness.m.Sc. 1979 Donald Campbell in Joy Hendry Chapman 23-4 (1985) 67:
Mony pokes o skinklin siller,
bonnie dainties cam your wey.
A sonsie quine wi ocht intil her
can mak a fortune, so they say. Sc. 1979 T. S. Law in Joy Hendry Chapman 23-4 (1985) 81:
... or the staurs can skinkle in time wi the singin o the wuins ... m.Sc. 1991 Ronald Stevenson in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 70:
The warld hes gane tae gowd;
for ower lang
the skinklan sun caresst
the leaf, the boucht. Sc. 1995 David Purves Hert's Bluid 59:
An up abuin sweings aw the outlin sterns,
ferr brichter nor A've ever seen afore,
sprekkilt frae here until Infinitie,
skinklin thair lane throu aw Eternitie. Abd. 1996 Sheena Blackhall Wittgenstein's Web vi:
The wab is gossamer thin. It's fell intricate. It's auld, an delicate, an easy torn. Again an again. I mend it, tae keep it hale. Fyles it catches the dyew an syne it skinkles like strung pearls. m.Sc. 1998 Lillias Forbes Turning a Fresh Eye 32:
It's an ower lang day
Syne I saw the mune
...Wi her eerie skenklin
Ower tree an scaur
Ower flauchtrin een o' yowes
In their happin o' gerse i' the mirk.

II. n. Lustre, gleaming, radiance, sparkle (Ayr. 1811 W. Aiton Agric. Ayr. 693).m.Sc. 1988 William Neill Making Tracks 90:
For aw his yirdin-claes the craw ye'll see
hes aye a braisant skinkle in his ee. ne.Sc. 1994 Alastair Mackie in James Robertson A Tongue in Yer Heid 97:
Upper Kirkgate, the Denburn, East and West North Street; the banks and offices and shops o the toun's steery hert, its mile-lang monument to the grey skinkle and mica een o the quarry-hole,

¶III. adj. Lustrous, sparkling, gleaming (Ayr. 1904 E.D.D.).