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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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

STUG, v.¹, n.¹ Also stugg, stoug; stog(g); steug, stewg. [stʌg; sm.Sc. stog]

I. v. 1. To stab, pierce with a sharp-pointed weapon or the like, to prick, jab (Ayr. 1880 Jam., steug); to stitch, sew lightly and roughly (n.Sc. 1808 Jam., steug).Rxb. 1716 Trans. Hawick Arch. Soc. (1922) 19:
I have stogd myself in the leg.Sc. 1721 R. Wodrow Sufferings iii. v. s. 3:
They stugged all the Beds with their Swords.Kcd., Fif. 1825 Jam.:
One who is jagged by long stubble is said to be stuggit.Sc. a.1830 Lamkin in Child Ballads (1956) IV. 480:
We'l stogg the baby i the cradle.Ayr. 1841 J. Paton Songs 15:
May his eyes be stougt out.Sc. 1913 H. P. Cameron Imit. Christ i. xxiii.:
Hoo aften hae ye heard that ane was stugg'd be the spurtle-blade?

2. To probe with a stick, “to push a stick down through the soil to ascertain the distance of the till from the surface; to search a pool or marsh by pushing down a pole at intervals” (Slk. 1825 Jam.).

3. To dress stone roughly with a pointed chisel (em.Sc., Rxb. 1971). Hence stugged, of a stone (Sc. 1946 Spons' Pract. Builder's Pocket Bk. 442).Edb. 1956 Scotsman (22 Sept.) 9:
To “stug cheeks of jambs.”

4. transf. To go too deeply with a cutting tool into wood, as in turning, planing or adzing (Bwk. 1825 Jam.); sim. of rough, uneven ploughing.Dmf. 1848 Letters T. Carlyle to his Brother (Marrs 1968) 665:
I must bore along, “stogging and blonking” (as you once defined Carson's ploughing).

II. n. 1. A prick, stab with some pointed object, e.g. a weapon, a needle, a thorn, prickle, a puncture (Dmf. 1925 Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. XIII. 40); the object itself, a dart; a rough, hasty stitch in sewing (n.Sc. 1808 Jam., steug, stewg); a thrusting, prodding motion, a jab.Abd. 1748 R. Forbes Ajax 9:
Wi' poison'd stewgs o' Hercules.Ags., Fif., Lnk. 1825 Jam.:
I've gotten a stug i' my fit. A large needle is called “a stug of a needle.”Ayr. 1869 J. Stirrat Poems 71:
He there began wi' stotting stuggs, His reel-rall bow athwart the therms to scrunt.Lnk. 1875 J. Nicholson Kilwuddie 25:
In that famous muirlan' battle Trooper loons gat mony a stog.Ayr. 1880 Jam.:
He gae me a steug wi' a roosty nail.Per. 1898 C. Spence Poems 77:
The bean we ca' turkey . . . Wi' stogs at the end like a skian dhu to dirk ye.Abd. 1922 Swatches o' Hamespun 60:
A stug i' the lith o' yer thoom.Sc. 1928 Scots Mag. (May) 145:
‘Stog ', a puncture is't, ye said whan yon mottor-caur gaed by.

2. In Curling: a chance shot which reaches its mark (Dmf. 1830 R. Broun Mem. Curl. Mab. 108).Ayr. 1828 H. Crawford Curling 42:
Yet wi' the twist, — a ride, — or stug, It lies the shot no more.

3. A thrust downwards with the foot, a stamp.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 81:
The trimling player stells his tramps Wi' mony a stamping stog.