flavoured with burnt biscuit; Scotch-fiddle = the itch; to play the Scotch-fiddle = 'to work the index finger of one hand like a fiddle-stick between the index and middle finger of the other' (Dyche, Grose); Scotch Greys = lice: hence headquarters of the Scots' Greys = a lowsy head (Grose); Scotch-hobby = 'a little sorry, scrubbed, low Horse of that country' (B. E.); Scotch-mist = a soaking rain (B. E., Grose); Scotch-ordinary = 'the house of office' (Ray); Scotch-peg = (rhyming) a leg: also Scotch; Scotch-pint = 'a bottle containing two quarts' (Grose); Scotch-prize = a capture by mistake (Grose): cf. Dutch; Scotch-seamanship = all stupidity and main strength; Scotch-warming-pan = (1) a chambermaid, and (2) a fart (q.v.—Ray, B. E., Grose); to answer Scotch fashion = to reply by asking another question; cf. Yankee Fashion.
1675. Earl of Rochester, Tunbridge Wells, June 30. And then more smartly to expound the Riddle Of all his Prattle, gives her a Scotch Fiddle.
1762. London Register [Notes and Queries, 3 S., v. 14.] "The Scotch Fiddle," by M'Pherson. Done from himself. The figure of a Highlander sitting under a tree, enjoying the greatest of pleasures, scratching where it itches.
1834. Michael Scott, Cruise of Midge, 231. What ship is that? This was answered Scotch fashion—What felucca is that?
1851-61. Mayhew, London Lab., i. 357. But mind, if you handle any of his wares, he don't make you a present of a Scotch fiddle for nothing.
1868. Temple Bar, xxv. 76. The Scots Greys were frequently on the march in the clothes of the convicts.
1886. Marshall, Pomes, 23. But some buds of youthfull purity, with undisplayed Scotch pegs. Ibid. Giddy (70). With that portion of his right Scotch peg supposed to be his calf.
1900. St. James's Gazette, 9 Ap. 3, 1. The superiority of resources on our side is so overwhelming that we must win if only by what the sailors call Scotch seamanship.
1883. Clark Russell, Sailor's Language, 121. Scotchman. A piece of wood fitted to a shroud or any other standing rope to save it from being chafed.
Scotchman, subs. (Colonial).—A
florin.
1886. Rider Haggard, Jess, x. Jantjé touched his hat, spat upon the Scotchman, as the natives of that part of Africa [Transvaal] call a two-shilling piece, and pocketed it. [(1) Because once upon a time a Scotchman made a great impression on the simple native mind in Natal by palming off some thousands of florins among them at the nominal value of half-a-crown.]
Flying Scotchman, subs. phr. (common).—The daily 2 p.m. express from Euston to Edinburgh and the North. Cf. Wild Irishman.
1885. G. Dolby, Dickens as I knew him, 33. A railway carriage which was being dragged along at the rate of fifty miles an hour by the Flying Scotchman.
The Scotchman hugging the Creole, phr. (West Indian).—See quot.
1835. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xiv. The Scotchman hugging the Creole; look at that tree. . . . It was a magnificent cedar . . . covered over with a curious sort of fret-work, wove by the branches of some strong parasitical plant. . . .
Scots (The), subs. (military).—The
1st Batt. Cameronians (Scottish
Rifles), formerly The 26th
Foot: circa 1762.
Scott. See Great Scott.
Scoundrel, subs. (old: now recognised).—1.
'A Hedge-bird or
sorry Scab' (B. E.); (2) 'a man
void of every principle of honour'
(Grose).
