Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
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.

TAW, n.¹, v.¹ Also taa; tyaw. Pl. taws(e), tawes, tauze (Sc. 1808 Jam.), ta(w)z (Sc. 1718–25 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I.24, II.269). [tɑ:, tǫ:; pl. tɑ: z, tǫ:z]

I. n. 1. A thong of a whip, a strap-tail (Sc. 1880 Jam.); most commonly in pl. taws(e), occas. double pl. tawses, a whip with tails, the lash for a whipping-top, specif. a leather strap with thongs, formerly used as an instrument of punishment in Sc. schools, the belt. Banned in state schools in 1986 and in private schools in 1998. Gen.Sc. and n.Eng. dial.; also fig. Also in phr. a pair of tawse. Combs. tawse-swasher, a wielder of the tawse, a schoolmaster; ¶tawse-waled, marked or bruised by the tawse. Phr. to come thro' the taws, to come through a bitter or chastening experience, to suffer hardship or distress.Abd. 1714 R. Smith Poems 39:
Thou ought to be whipt with the Taws.Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 266:
Never take the taws, when a word will do the turn.e.Lth. 1759 Address to Farmers Scot. 4:
A receptacle for his snuff, a napkin of a very singular complexion, and the tauze.Edb. 1801 J. Thomson Poems 6:
A pair o' tawse, to gie them paiks.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xvi.:
To gar Jock Dalgleish lay the tawse on your back.Slk. 1818 Hogg B. of Bodsbeck xii.:
He might be skelpit wi' the taws o' divine wrath.Lnk. 1853 W. Watson Poems 28:
The nippy taw Comes whiskin' whiles athort us a'.Gsw. 1860 J. Young Poorhouse Lays 159:
An' when a' wives come thro' the taws, They'll aiblins then excuse my zeal.Ags. 1861 Arbroath Guide (6 April) 4:
A wabster and a dominie, wha had naething but a pair o' taws and a shuttle.Abd. 1865 G. MacDonald Alec Forbes xiii.:
The smile, which, in spite of pain, had illuminated his tawse-waled cheeks.Lnk. 1880 Clydesdale Readings 115:
The veins swall'd on his forehead like whip-taws.Lth. 1885 J. Strathesk More Bits 22:
The cane and the “wee taws” were occasionally, but mildly used. The “big taws”, seldom produced excepting on “capital offence” occasions.e.Lth. 1885 S. Mucklebackit Rhymes 142:
The ancient tawse-swasher pled weariness .Lnk. 1895 W. C. Fraser Whaups 18:
From the faint odour of burning leather we knew that he was roasting the tawse taes.Fif. 1898 S. Tytler Mrs Carmichael's Goddesses xvi.:
There will be nae mair tawses.Edb. 1898 J. Baillie W. Crichton 175, 201:
He kept a pair of tawse like the other teachers. . . . What kind of a “taw” did he keep?Ayr. 1912 G. Cunningham Verse 143:
You've lost the taw o' your whup.Dmf. 1925 Trans. Dmf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc. XIII. 38:
You got a skud or skelp with the tawse.Edb. 1926 Edb. Ev. News (6 Aug.) 4:
He leathered it [a top] wi' tawse o' tow.Fif. 1985 Christopher Rush A Twelvemonth and a Day 85:
So in many a playground battle, where tense gunfighters faced one another for the draw, the invisible weapon turned out to be Miss Sangster's tawse, the terror of the imgination, and instead of an air cruel with cordite fumes and the whang of bullets, we watched the last scenes of such dramas turn to farce. Rnf. 1986 John Mitchell Class Struggle 47:
Since August 1983 the use of a 'tawse', or 'belt', had been specifically banned as an instrument of discipline in most Scottish schools. The catalyst for this eventual action within Strathclyde had been the case raised in the Supreme Court of Human Rights by a Clydebank mother: Mrs Grace Campbell refused to allow corporal punshiment to be inflicted on her son, took the case to Strasbourg, won it thus tolling the death knell for the belt in Strathclyde and then removed her son to a private school, where corporal punishment was still enforced! m.Sc. 1986 William Montgomerie in Joy Hendry Chapman 46 10:
"And a sting
Mr Slater!
Gin ye like yer laddie lick him
gin ye hate him daut an straik him"
"D'ye cairry the auld tawse
in yer coat-tail
Heidmaister?
I see ye've brunt the forked tongue
in the coal-fire
or the gas-ring" wm.Sc. 1987 Anna Blair Scottish Tales (1990) 141:
The Castle of Mey, on the other hand, was in wild open countryside, where a lad could swim in the cold, cold sea of the Pentland Firth, fish in its rugged inlets or gallop freely for miles over moorland countryside. No one held his nose in a book there or took the tawse across his breeks for fidgeting in class. Or worse. Abd. 1996 Sheena Blackhall Wittgenstein's Web iii:
A wird can be a sword or a snake - far mair lethal nor a cloor; as twisty as sleekit's an aidder. Tae get the tawse at the schule wis naethin - a meenit's hurt - fur I got it aften. Far, far coorser nor ony tawse wis the skeely wheep o a teacher's tongue that cud bare yer wee mistaks an shortfaas fur aa tae leuch at. Sc. 1998 Andrew Lothian in Conrad Wilson et al. Books in Scotland 66 33:
Of the lass o' pairts there is little mention, but her grown up equivalent, tawse in hand, is there: 'even the slightest of lady teachers could command respect from the toughest of teenage gangs, especially if she just happened to be known to have a low handicap at the golf course.'

2. A strip or thin slat of wood used in making potato baskets (see quot.).Slg. 1966 Stat. Acc.³ 145:
The narrower and thinner strips of oak that went lengthwise were called “the tawse”.

3. A child's word for the penis (Slg., Fif., wm.Sc. 1972).

†4. Difficulty, laborious effort, much ado (Abd. 1825 Jam.). Cf. II. 2.

II. v. For other Sc. forms see Tyauve.

1. tr. As in Eng., to make (hides) soft by beating in the preparation of leather, to heckle flax. Hence (1) to pull and tug at (s.Sc. 1802 J. Sibbald Chron. Sc. Poetry Gl.; Rnf. c.1850 Crawfurd MSS. (N.L.S.) T. 93; Kcd. 1944), to knead, draw out or twist some adhesive, plastic, stringy or fibrous substance e.g. in the making of toffee or the like, to make pliable like mortar (Ags., Peb. 1972); to spoil by too much handling (Bwk. 1825 Jam.). Pa.p. strong ¶tawen, see 1810 quot.Ags. 1808 Jam.:
Be sure you taw the leaven weel.Mry. 1810 J. Cock Simple Strains 89:
They've tawen't sae till now they've made it An unco sight.Per. 1903 H. Dryerre Blairgowrie 207:
If the profits on the rock were great, the work, for many years at any rate, was very hard, until the hand “tawing”, as it is termed, was superseded by machinery.Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.:
Ti taw roset or taffee.

Adj. tawie, fig. of an animal: tractable, docile, easy to handle and command.Ayr. 1785 Burns To Auld Mare v.:
Ye ne'er was donsie But hamely, tawie, quiet an' cannie.Rnf. 1813 E. Picken Poems II. 134:
Tho' bauld when at hame He fand, whan afiel' he was tawie an' tame.Clc. 1882 J. Walker Poems 262:
But tawie, canny on thou trod Wi' cautious speed.

(2) Of a suckling: to tug at the breast with the lips or hands, to suck long and greedily (Rxb. 1825 Jam.; Rxb. 1990s;1923 Watson W.-B.), also. in gen.Rxb. 1925 E. C. Smith Mang Howes 23:
A saw um bebbin and taain oot ov a bottle.

2. intr. To work laboriously, to toil and moil, to struggle, throw the limbs about in physical effort, wrestle. Vbl.n. tawin, -an, wrestling, struggling, a struggle, difficulty (Kcd. 1972). Phr. with a tawan, with a struggle, reluctantly.Per. 1753 A. Nicol Rural Muse 53:
That perfect mettle to find out Would be an unca tawing.Abd. 1754 R. Forbes Journal 25:
I was lying tawin an' wamlin under lucky-minny.Ags. 1803 Scots Mag. (Sept.) 638:
In browster houses 'twas a tawin' To get him up ere cocks were crawin'.Ags. 1808 Jam.:
He callit me sometimes Provost, and sometimes my Lord; but it was ay with a tawan.Ags. 1879 Arbroath Guide (12 April) 3:
I micht hae gotten on some wye wi' a tawin'.Ags. 1894 F. Mackenzie Cruisie Sk. iv.:
Ye'll hae a ta-win till ye get onybody to faut that it's ca'ed aifter noo.

3. tr. Also in form tawse. To beat, whip with a strap or tawse (Abd. 1790 A. Shirrefs Poems Gl., taws, taz). Gen.Sc., rare. Obs. in Eng. Vbl.n. tawsing. See I. 1.Per. 1883 R. Cleland Inchbracken xvi.:
I would have her tawed through the town at the cart's tail.Abd. 1923 A. Shewan Spirat Adhuc Amor 227:
Two brothers were removed from the Gym. owing to an excessive tawsing, and a boy was tawsed once for twenty minutes.Sc. 1954 Scotsman (2 Oct.) 6:
Whether the individual child is tawsed or not.