Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1990 (DOST Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Row, Rowe, n.¹ [F. roue, L. rota.] A wheel. a. specif. The instrument of punishment. b. ? A windlass or some other part of a sluice, or ? an example of Rol(l n.¹ III in some unexplained sense.See also Row bed.a. 1557 Knox IV 301.
[He] was laid upon a maner of a rowe above the fyre 1561 Q. Kennedy Compendious Ressonyng (ed.) 178/11 (G).
The theyff hes the gallois or the brygant the gybet or the rowe 1572-5 Diurn. Occurr. 250.
James Cadder … wes brokin on the row [pr. root: ? misreading of MS row or ? var. of Rote n.²] 1591 Crim. Trials I ii 241.
Ordanit him to be brokin vpoun the row at the mercat croce of Edinburgh a1597-1617 Hist. Jas. VI (1825) 94.
He first cawsit Bell and Calder to be publiklie puneist, brokin upoun the rowe and thus pynit to the death 1604 Bk. Old Edinb. C. IV 105.
To be brokin vpoun ane row quhill he be deidb. 1658–9 Aberd. Shore Wk. Acc. 442.
For ane trie to be ane rowe to the clus