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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

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

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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Slik(e, n. Also: slyk(e, slyik, sleik, slaik, slac. [Fris. slyk, MDu. slijc, sliec, MLG slik, slyk. Also in the later dial. Cf. 19th c. Eng. dial. slike, slake; also ME and e.m.E. sliche, sleech.] Mud or silt, esp. as found on the bed of a river or below the tide-line, ground consisting of such mud; also, heavy, wet mud as found in a bog, boggy ground.(a) 1375 Barb. vi 78.
He … saw … the watter holl throw slik [C. slike] rynnand, & fand na furd that men mycht pas 1375 Barb. xiii 352. c1420 Wynt. iv 263.
Slyke and klay micht than be sene Quhare wattyre depe before had bene c1420 Wynt. iv 267.
The ost, … Thare passyng to the cyte made, Throuch the depe slyk and the clay 1501 Doug. Pal. Hon. 162.
The soyl was nocht but marres, slike, [L. slyik] and sand a1508 Kennedy Pass. Christ 230. 1513 Doug. i viii 83.
We ar defendit to herbry on the sand, … and, drevyn to land By fors of storm, the slyke thai ws deny 1513 Doug. vi v 6.
Acheron … bulrand furth … Onto Cochitus all his slyke and sand 1513 Doug. ix xi 106.
The seys mixt ourran, and … Blak slyke and sand vp poplit in the sted 1513 Doug. x vi 30.
Thar stammys tuke the bankis dry, And thar kelys stak in the slyke 1513 Treas. Acc. IV 525.
To bere the tymer furth of the slyke that came up fra the Margret 1533 Boece 55b.
Ane porte … convenient to harbery schippis … Bot now it is stoppit be glar and rutis of wedis, growin amang the slike 1533 Boece 97.
Mos, slike and sward irksum to ane armye 1533 Boece 215.
Pichtis … impeschit be slike and glar of the river(b) 1659–60 Aberd. Shore Wk. Acc. 454.
To John Baverlay for leiding the stones that James Broune left among the sleik(c) 1643 Old Dundee I 473.
The neighbours … to … fill up the waste bounds in the New Shore with slaik

b. ? Mud used as a building material in ‘wattle and daub’ construction. Only in the formula stac & slac (granting a right to enclose sheep). (Cf. Stak(e n.¹) 1290–1300 Liber Calchou 458.
Et … in bosco ad del scrogges stac & slac per ouibus suis firmandi