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: 1499-1685
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Spare, Spair(e, adj. Also: spar, speyr. [ME and e.m.E. spare (14th c.), spar (c1460). Cf. ON sparr (to be) spared, OE spær, OHG spar, MDu. spaer sparing; Spar(e v.]
1. Held in reserve, spare. Quot. 1538-9 may belong in Spur band n. b. Of land, buildings: Uncultivated, unoccupied. 1538–9 Master of Works Accounts (ed.) I 259.
Irne werk … virollis tawponis spair bandis and utheris necessaris 1540 Acta Conc. & Sess. MS XIII 183b.
Fische nettis with thair rapis warrapis spar rapis [etc.] 15… Balcarres P. MS V 73b.
Spare whilis iii payer 1679 Rothesay B. Rec. 369.
To have the Militia Companie … in readinesse … with … fixed armes and ane pair of spare shoes by and attour the shoes on his feet 1685 Glamis Bk. Record 81.
No less then 24 oxen in dayly work, besyds a spair ox to each ingeag'd leading stonsb. a1500 Golagros and Gawane 112.
[He] sped hym on spedely on the spare mure 1649 Kingarth Par. Rec. 17.
Any that hes a spaire house therabout to be a schole for a yeire
2. Meagre, scanty. Also transf. and proverb. 1643 Acts VI i 26/2.
Victuall in the spairest measuretransf. 1580 Inverness Rec. I 281.
Trocht the greit tempest … quhar the said Thomas was constranit in speyr hoipe to mak calffing to his boit of the sark was on his bakproverb. a1598 Ferg. Prov. (1706) 262.
Better spare at the breird, nor at the bottom
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"Spare adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 5 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/spare_adj>
