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

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First published 2000 (DOST Vol. VIII).
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S(c)her(e, S(c)heir(e, n.¹ Also: cher(e; sheyr(e, cheir; s(c)heer(e, sheeir; s(c)hear, sheare; shier, schyer; schir, schyr; shayre; (schor). [ME and e.m.E. særes (c1205) and sheres (c1300), both pl., schere (Cursor M.), ‘prob. two formations’ (OED): (1) OE scérero, f. the same root as (2) OE scéar fem. See also Cheris.In ME and e.m.E. chiefly pl.]

1. A pair of scissors or shears; scissors; shears. Also proverb. in calke is na sheares marking the cloth with chalk is not the same as cutting it.Const. sing. and pl. in form and constr. with sing. reference, also a pair (of) scheris, in same sense. Also pl.See also Boull n.² 2 for further examples.(1) sing. a1400 Leg. S. xxx 398.
Scho … with a schere gert cut hir hare 1513 Doug. xii iv 28.
A … scheip … Quhais woll or fleyce was neuer clyp with scheir a1568 Bann. MS 140a/25.
Thow ȝeid with elwand scheir and thymmill … seikand thy craft 1618 Trial Isobel Inch 6.
Ane aigit woman with a sheir clippit ane lock of his quhit hair abune his lug 1655 Edinb. Test. LXVIII 184b.
Ane lang twa handit schyer(2) pl. with sing. reference. 1492 Myll Spect. 295/25.
Scho stekit him in to the wame with hir scheris c1500 Rowll Cursing 212 (B).
Nor ȝit na that schaipis with scheiris Ib. 224 (B).
& blame the scheiris that raif the skreid 1549–50 Stirling B. Rec. I 58.
The gret scheris a1568 Bann. MS 144b/3.
Snop quod the telȝeour, snap quod the scheiris 1679 J. Barclay Descr. Cath. Ch. 24.
Then, all their fleeces do to me belong, And though my sheirs goe neer, I do no wrong 1681 New Mills Manuf. lxxxviii.
For the sheers with inflers 1687 Old Ross-shire I 74.
Against Thomas Ross chirurgeon … for cuting of the vaines with sheirsproverb. a1598 Ferg. Prov. No. 227.
Calke is na sheares 1601 Cal. Sc. P. XIII 852.
Kaik is no schearis 1643 Old Ross-shire I 314.
Sheyres(3) a1500 Bk. Chess 1422.
The notar … His richt hand a pair of scheris suld beire 1500 Edinb. B. Rec. I 80.
That he be worth of his awin substance thre pair of scheris [etc.] c1500 Makc. MS xiii 67.
H [sic] forpex, a pair scheris 1515 Wigtown B. Ct. fol. 41b.
For the vrangus haldin fra him of ane payre of cheris 1534 Selkirk B. Ct. (ed.) 144.
Ane hakyll and paissill, ane pair of scheiris 1567 Nugae Scoticae 14.
Ane pair of woll kamis … ane pair of scheiris price xviij d. 1579, 1617 Despauter (1579).
Forfex, ane pair of scheiris 1590–1 Crim. Trials I ii 221.
With a paire of sheeres [she] clipped off three haires from the udder of the cow 1597 Skene Verb. S. s.v. Schireff (see also S(c)hire n. 1 b (1)(c)).
An paire of schires quhair with claith is cutted 1615 Kirkcudbr. B. Rec. II 170.
iij s. iiij d. for a pair scheiris 1649 Cochran-Patrick Coinage I liii.
Ane pair of great scheiris for cutting of copper 1664 Edinb. Test. LXXI 314.
Tua pair scheirs 1681 Foulis Acc. Bk. 72.
For a pair cheirs to poll the horse, 8 s.(4) pl. 1554–5 Edinb. Old Acc. II 39.
To Johne Ahannay, for irnewark, viz., scheirs, bands, wageis, keyis, and nallis, xiij s. vj d. 1589 Prot. Bk. J. Inglis 24 Aug.
The guddis & gere movable as insaytht gere scheris kistis woll [etc.] 1597 Bk. Rates 10.
[Inward Customs] Scheris for walkeris 1603 Montgomery Mem. 250.
Ane kes of scheris, v s. 1612 Bk. Rates (Halyb.) 326. 1616 Inverness Rec. II 146.
Knyiffis and schiris 1626–7 Glasgow Chart. II App. 590.
Huiks and schyris 1633 Edinb. Test. LVI 137.
Sex shayris … ane shayre buird 1661 S. Leith Rec. 117/2.
The taillyours … ware ordained to take out the stone … quhairon the sheirs are hewne 1674 Argyll Justic. Rec. I 34. 1682 Haddington B. Rec. (Robb) 11 Dec.
Ane petition … against Alex^r Burnet tacksman of the wake-miln, for suffering of unfriemen to take up the wake milnes, sheires, and presses thairof 1691 Foulis Acc. Bk. 137.
For mending and sharping the gardiners meikle sheirs and syths grinding

b. A representation of a pair of shears. 1523–4 Aberd. B. Rec. in Mill Mediæv. Plays 123.
On his breist the wsit taikin of his craft … ane pair of pantit scheris 1534 Bamff Chart. 65.
Eist linalie to ane crois callit the reid crois standand upon the said debetable hill betwixt Bamff and Alyth upon the quhilk croce there is arms drawn, upon the south syde the pictour of ane sword … and upon the north syde of the cros ane picture of ane scheir with the manner of ane ball within the plaits and schering of the sheiris 1543 (c1580) Edinb. B. Rec. II 114.
Ane scheris for the mark of the brethir of walkeris and schereris

c. attrib. With stane in the description of a boundary stone (see the 1534 quot. in b above). 1536 Laing Chart. 108.
Fra the said croce steane lineallie east … to the schearstane; fra the scheirsteane lineallie eist [etc.]

d. comb. In shear-grinder, Scheresmith n. 1688 New Mills Manuf. 178.
John Gray sheargrinder

e. Lang scheiris, a nickname. 1578 Armstrong Hist. Liddesdale I 79.
[List of nicknames] Lang scheiris

2. Preceded by a noun, in attrib. or possess. use, indicating the particular function of the shears.attrib. 1522 Dunferm. B. Rec. I 209.
Ane pair of woll scheris 1546 Ex. Processes (Reg. H.) Merschell v. Muire.
Ane woll scheir price ij s. 1561 Dumfries B. Ct. fol. 6a.
Tua pair of valkear scheris 1562 Ib. fol. 130a.
Valkcar schers 1575 Ib. 21 March.
Talȝor schors 1582–3 Cochran-Patrick Coinage II 317 (see Justing vbl. n.² 2).
Justing scheiris 1612 Bk. Rates (Halyb.) 315.
Instruments for chirurgianes … Incisioun shearis 1662 Crim. Trials III 614.
An wooll-sheeir 1675 Cunningham Diary 53.
A pair of horse sheers, 3 s. 1685 Soc. Ant. LVIII 368.
A pair of gairden sheirspossess. 1515 Wigtown B. Ct. fol. 47a.
Ane valkaris scheris 1595 Edinb. Test. XXVIII 233.
Four pair of walkeris scheiris price of the pair vj li. 1617 M. Works Acc. (ed.) II 89.
For a pair of tailyeouris scheiris xxx s. 1618 Edinb. Test. L 41.
Ane pair of skinneris scheiris price thrie schillingis

b. = 1 b above. 1627 Linlithgow B. Rec. 13 April.
The great wrong done … in causeing put wp the tailȝeour scheiris and thair pressing yrne upoune the foir face of thair sait in the kirk

3. As used, with a sieve, in divination, or coscinomancy; freq., (to turn) the seve and schere (scheris).In this form, chiefly or only in the north-east and the Northern Isles. To turn the riddill was more common in the south and west (see Riddil(l n.² 2 b). 1602 Shetland Sheriff Ct. (ed.) 30.
Nicole Culyesetter is dempt to quite himselff of the turning of sive and the scheiris 1603 Elgin Rec. II 112.
William Cuming, cordiner, denyit the turning the schiff and scheir 1604 Shetland Sheriff Ct. (ed.) 128.
Confest … that he usit the sife and the scheir the tyme of the stowth of Walter Macritcheis corne 1607 Ellon Presb. 62.
[Margaret King, vagabond, fugitive from the parish of Ellon] for turning the sive [ed. five] and the scheir [ed. schew] 1620 Elgin Rec. II 164.
Becaus Janet Douglas wantit ane scheip scho turned the siwe and the scheir and they fell on Thomas Jonkins hous 1621 Ellon Presb. 108.
[He is accused of] turning the syus [ed. syns] and the scheirs [ed. scheus] 1636 Elgin Rec. II 230.
Both present confest that the siff [and] the scheir was turned in their hous 1641 Cramond Alves 9.
[Summoned for turning] the seife and the sheare 1654 Id. Aberdour 25.
[That piece of devilry which they commonly call] turning the siefe and the sheare 1661 Soc. Ant. XXII 254.
By turning the sive and sheires she reased the divell 1673 Rec. Old Aberd. II 67.
Ther casting off the sivve [ed. fivve] and shier Ib.
A sivv [ed. fivv] and pair off shiers 1709 Bk. Arran II 298 (see Riddil(l n.² 2 b).
Shears

b. Also used, along with molten lead, to divine the outcome of an illness affecting children and believed to affect the heart. 1643 Misc. Abbotsf. C. 184.
Ȝe said that the child haid the hart cake … Ȝe took ane seif and set [it] on the childis head and set ane cogge full of water in the seive and then laid ane woll scheir on the coggis mouth and then ȝe took lead … and meltit it and powrit it throw the boul of the scheir into the water thrie severall tymes devining throw the lead whither the child wold recover or not 16.. Cranna Fraserburgh 192.
Agnes Duff tuik … ane coig with watter in the sieve, and ane scheir abein the coig; and the leid was put in through the boull of the scheir amang the watter

4. A pair of (coal-)tongs. 1642 T. Hope Diary 157.
As I wes … casting the coll furth off the scheiris in the fyre [etc.] — 1645 Aberd. Sheriff Ct. III 43.
A pair coill sheires of brass

5. Candil scheris candle snuffers, see Candil scheris n.pl. for further examples. 1650 Rogers Social Life I 385.
Candle scheeres

6. In other, mechanical, applications. a. ? ‘A device used upon ships … for raising and fixing masts … and other heavy gear, consisting of two (or sometimes more) poles steadied (in a sloping position) by guys and fastened together at the top, from which the hoisting tackle depends, and with their lower ends separated as a base and secured to the deck' (OED). [17th c. Eng. sheeres (a1625); cf Germ. scherenkran.] Also attrib.With the second quot. below, cf. also MDu. schāre, schōre a prop or stay. 1589–1600 Skipper's Acc. (Morton) 52b.
For saueing of ane aking terye to be bousteris and scheris Ib. 54b.
For saueing of vi scheris to our peges nos and bering 1641–8 Skipper's Acc. (Smettone) 17.
To the mester carpinder, tries to be the head & shers to the for mast & men mast & a row to the men mastattrib. 1589–1600 Skipper's Acc. (Morton) 54a.
For vii stane of welding to our scherendis at xliiii s. the stane

b. ‘A piece of metal bent to form three sides of a rectangle or similar figure … in which the axle-ends of a wheel or roller turn' (SND, s.v. Shear n. 1 (3) (i)). c. ‘A similarly shaped piece of metal in which the pointer of a … steelyard oscillates till equilibrium is reached' (SND, s.v. Shear n. 1 (3) (ii)).b. 1683 Reid Sc. Gard'ner (1683) 37.
The thrid wheell is about 30 inches diameter all iron and runs in a shiers of the same fastned perpendicular under the midle of the forebreast with a turning pin of ironc. a1688 Wallace Orkney (ed. 2) 71.
There is a ring in the middle [of the stilliard] near the sheir that has a pole thrust thorough it, by which … the cassie may swim fair