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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SWACK, adj., v.² Also swa(w)k. [swɑk]

I. adj. 1. Of substances: soft, moist and easily moulded, plastic (n.Sc. 1972); of soil workable.Sc. 1736 Mrs McLintock Receipts 6:
To make French Bread. It must be pretty swak in the Leaven.Rnf. 1763 Session Papers, Porterfield v. Neilson (3 Aug.) 11:
Corn which had been threshed out of Sheaves, wet and dry together, which was swack, and which was hot in the chaffy Bing.Abd. 1868 G. MacDonald R. Falconer I. xx.:
As much milk-porridge as he could eat . and a good slice of swack cheese.Abd. 1923 J. Hunter MS. Diary (11 Jan.):
Lea very swack for ploughing.Bnff. c.1927:
Swack cheese is plastic — will not crumble down in the cutting.Abd. 1952 Huntly Express (21 Nov.):
Ye winna get swack plooin' until ye get a gweed frost.

2. Pliant, easily bent or stretched (Sc. 1710 T. Ruddiman Gl. to Douglas Aeneis s.v. Swik, 1808 Jam.; n.Sc. 1972). Hence jocularly of persons: having an empty stomach, hungry (Ork. 1949).Kcd. 1856 W. Jamie Jacobite's Son 22:
They maun hae swack insides and strang stamocks.Kcd. 1903 W. MacGillivray Auld Drainie (1912) 19:
I labor't ye weel wi' a swack broom cow.Kcd. 1932 L. G. Gibbon Sunset Song (1937) 156:
The blaze of the meikle larch logs that Chae had put on, they were swack with resin.

3. Of persons or animals or their limbs: active, nimble, lissom, lithe, supple, agile (n.Sc. 1808 Jam.; Ork. 1929 Marw.; Sh., Ork., n.Sc., Ags., Per., Fif. 1972). Also superl. swaakest. Also of wits, quick, nimble. Hence swackness, agility.Abd. 1754 R. Forbes Journal 22:
A gaucy, swack young fellow.Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 107:
'Twill mak you souple, swack and young.Kcb. 1808 J. Mayne Siller Gun 16:
Drink maks the auldest swack and strappen.Sc. 1823 A. Sutherland Macrimmon IV. 82:
Twa or three pair o' swack south-country horses.Kcd. 1844 W. Jamie Muse 156:
Gie him just a wee-drap water, To weet his craig and mak him swacker.Rxb. 1880 T. Watts Woodland Echoes 130:
A set o' swawk limbs ha'e been clapp'd tae thy form.Ags. 1894 F. Mackenzie Cruisie Sk. xviii.:
Her tongue was as swack as ever.Abd. 1918 W. Mutch Hev ye a Spunk 31:
He up the closs till's breakfast wi' a swackness nae that mowse.Kcd. 1933 L. G. Gibbon Cloud Howe 73:
As swack as you like he would loup canny and careful in over a fence.Sh. 1968 New Shetlander No. 86. 28:
Young swack sheelds, eftir adventure.Bnff. 1969 Dufftown News (13 Sept.) 2:
Ye need young chaps wi' swak backs tae tak the prizes.Edb. 1979 Albert D. Mackie in Joy Hendry Chapman 23-4 (1985) 44:
And made me a swack chiel, rosie-cheekit,
Paing-fou o health - m.Sc. 1979 William J. Rae in Joy Hendry Chapman 23-4 (1985) 78:
And the swack wee craitur could suin gang ower a bit burn sweemin, nae bother ataa. Abd. 1980:
Let's see faa's swaakest. Abd. 1981 Christina Forbes Middleton The Dance in the Village 22:
Ma brain's swack bit ma body's seized up. Edb. 1982 Norman McCaig in Hamish Brown Poems of the Scottish Hills v:
Not that I despise the pleasures of the city. Now that I'm, well, getting on and am not so swack as I used to be, I think my ideal life would be to spend the six winter months in the city and the other six in the Highlands ... Sc. 1991 T. S. Law in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 34:
This was a sairlik jobe tae tak,
an gif the chiel was no sae swack
o mynd as caw gy caunnilie,
but gabbit gyan coorselik, say,
he'd finnd the waefou news as ill Abd. 1998 Sheena Blackhall The Bonsai Grower 75:
... the heich pynt o the Martullich year fin aa the warld an his mither foregaithert tae see their kin an neebors an fiers fur a claik an a dram, or a fecht an a toozle-up, as the humour tuik them - or a race up Tom na Fuar gin they war swack eneuch.

4. Unsteady, jerky and loose in movement (Sh. 1914 Angus Gl., Sh. 1972, swak).Ork. 1880 Dennison Sketch-Bk. 52:
Sheu [boat] was a' lous' i the heudin's, an' as swack i' the lumpie sea as a auld paet kazie.

5. Thin, slender, of an iron or wooden bar (Lth. 1825 Jam.).Hdg. 1896 J. Lumsden Battles 14:
His rigid neck was lang and swack.

¶6. “Plenty and good” (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 442). This meaning is anomalous and may be due to confusion with swacking s.v. Swack, v.¹, 3.

II. v. To make pliant or supple (Abd. 1972), more commonly Swacken, q.v.; in eclectic use: to make or become faint or weak, falter.Sc. 1871 P. H. Waddell Psalms xxxvii. 31:
His gate, it sal ne'er swak itsel.Sc. 1879 P. H. Waddell Isaiah xl. 30:
Young lads may swak an' weary.