Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

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.

SLID, adj. 1. Of surfaces: slippery, smooth (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Dmf. 1894 Trans. Dmf. & Gall. Antiq. Soc. 154; Lnk., Kcb., s.Sc. 1970). Hence sliddy, adj., id.; slid(di)ness, n., slipperiness (Sc. 1808 Jam.); fig. smoothness of sound, as in 1728 quot. Comb. slid-ice, see 1955 quot. (Sc. 1808 Jam.).Sc. 1728 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) II. 24, 167:
Enjoy your Friend, and judge the Wit And Slidness of a Sang. . . . On a slid Stane, or smoother Slate, He can the Picture draw.Per. 1802 S. Kerr Poems 5:
The plainstanes a' were unco slid.Ayr. 1836 Galt in Tait's Mag. (June) 393:
With the length of the road and its sliddiness.Sc. 1850 J. Struthers Poet. Wks. II. 239:
We ploutered aft, slid eels to snare.Slk. 1897 D. W. Purdie Poems 136:
At the slid game o' curlin'.Gall. 1904 E.D.D.:
The roads war as slid as glass.Lnk. 1910 C. Fraser Glengonnar 119:
I nearly fell as I gaed through the entry — it was sae slid.Lth. 1924 A. Dodds Poppies in Corn 9:
When the roads were sliddy.Dmf. 1955:
Slid-ice, ice on a hill where there is a spring or a runnel, so that it freezes and gets wet and freezes again, and so builds up into deepish ice, very slippery and irregular.

2. Liable to slip or slide, insecure, precarious.Sc. 1736 Ramsay Proverbs (1776) 31:
He has a slid grip that has an eel by the tail.

3. Fig. of persons or their actions, etc.: sly, cunning, “smooth”; oily, wheedling, cajoling (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Rxb. 1942 Zai; Lnk., Slk. 1970). Hence sliddy, id., cf. slidy, s.v. Slide; slidlie, -y, adv., in a smooth and cunning manner, slyly, covertly (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.).Sc. 1719 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 214:
There's ay something sae auld-farran Sae slid, sae unconstrain'd and darrin.Abd. p.1768 A. Ross Fortunate Shep. MS. 90:
My head, my heart, what have I said? my all As game before that sliddy archer fall.Per. 1802 S. Kerr Poems 32:
There's Cowper too, wi' his slid tongue.Dmf. 1805 Scots Mag. (Sept.) 782:
Wi' slider gab, an' lighter heel, An' no sae saucy.Bwk. 1821 W. Sutherland Poems 26:
The whilliewha slid tongues o' butter.Peb. 1832 R. D. C. Brown Comic Poems 23:
A pawky slid seceder snell.Rxb. 1847 J. Halliday Rustic Bard 193:
Some bauldly face wi' a' they meet; Some slidly slip frae sight oot.