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.
Quotation dates: 1399-1500, 1560-1578, 1648-1649
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Sobbin(g, vbl. n. Also: sob(b)yne, sobbyng, sobing. [ME and e.m.E. sobbing (c1300); Sob(b v.] The action of sobbing; the sound of this or a sound resembling it. b. The sorrow or distress itself. a1400 Legends of the Saints xviii 611.
Vith sar sobyne, doule, & syt Myn hard fortone can I wyt c1420 Wynt. v 891.
All thai … Gretand in tyll sobbyng [C. sobbyne] sare, … in all anoyit ware 1456 Hay II 158/2.
His breste quharethrou the ayr cummys and gais be sobbing and siching, hosting and aynding 1461 Liber Pluscardensis I 382.
Ger all the ayre that in the hycht above is … Turn all in sobbyng … And help to murn a1500 Henr. Orph. 151.
Thar was na solace mycht his sobbing ces 1562-3 Winȝet I 31/9.
I sall turne … ȝour canticulis in sobing 1562-3 Winȝet I 105/17.
Turn to me in all ȝour hert in fasting, sobing, and greting a1578 Pitsc. I 109/32.
The lamentabill sobing of my freindis a1649 Drummond II 30/6.
O! how more sweete is birds harmonious moane Or the hoarse sobbings of the widow'd douepl. 1560 Rolland Seven Sages 9858.
With sair sichingis and sobbingsb. 1490 Irland Mir. I 115/22.
Humane linage, that lyis in gret sobbin, greting and hevy murnyng and tribulacioune
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"Sobbin vbl. n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/sobbing>
