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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

STINT, v., n. Sc. usages:

I. v. 1. intr. To cease, leave off, desist, used absol. or with gerund or inf. with to (Bnff., Ags. 1971). Now arch. or dial. in Eng.Abd. 1768 A. Ross Helenore (S.T.S.) 27:
I shall never stint, Till o' the truth the verity be kent.Edb. 1799 Edb. Mag. (March) 230:
Quait in yoner green kirkyaird Thy mammie stints to greit.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian x.:
The damsel stinted in her song.Abd. 1824 G. Smith Douglas 15:
I thought halumlie, Afore he stintet, he would finish me.Slk. 1824 Hogg Confessions (1874) 526:
All the while I never stinted crying out with all my power.

2. As in Eng., to restrict, keep short, limit (Ork., Bnff., Ags. 1971). Ppl.adj. stintit, contracted form stint, short, scant; stingy, niggardly.m.Lth. 1835 T. Watson Poems 28:
Ithers whase strength is no sae guid, Or ablins stint o' breath.Dmf. 1866 R. Simpson Cottars of Glen 102:
The widow is no stintit in the measure o' her milk like mony ane.

3. With upon, of a piece of land: to lie next to' to have a common boundary with.Rxb. 1768 Session Papers, Buccleugh v. Turnbull, etc. (10 March) 57:
Enlarging of their yairds, which stints upon and lyes contiguous with the Common.

4. intr. Of plants: to shrivel, cease to grow, droop (Ork. 1971). Only tr. in Eng.w.Lth. 1794 J. Trotter Agric. W. Lth. 15:
Their roots being cut off from both sides by the ditches, they soon stint, and in damp wet lands die out.Fif. 1832 Fife Herald (4 Oct.):
Turnips were stinting for want of moisture.

II. n. A check or retardation in growth, of a plant. Cf. v., 4. In 1892 quot. in nonce use = shrinkage, diminution, the ravages caused by time. Obs. in Eng.Kcd. 1847–9 Trans. Highl. Soc. 105:
The plant so tender after the stint, that it suffered in its earliest stage.Ayr. 1892 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage 101:
Alas! what stint the tear an' wear O' time to baith has done!