Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BACK-BREED, —BREETH, n. Lit. the breadth of the back; hence (1) a fall or throw on the back; (2) a burial allotment. [′bɑk-′brid, — ′briθ](1) Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 9:
He geed up till 'im, leet a bleach at 'im i' the face, an' ga 'im's back-breed o' the green.Abd. 1898 W. M. in E.D.D.:
He got his backbreeth o' the fleer.Fif. 1864 W. D. Latto Tammas Bodkin (1868) xxxiii.:
The immediate consequence was that I got my back-breed on the hard granite cawsey.(2) Ags. 1920 G. Lowson in Stirling Arch. Soc. 83:
The usage in rural Forfarshire is to speak of the right of burial in the parish burying ground as having so many “back-breeds” — that is, back breadths.Fif. a.1890 (per Ags.⁶):
A man, whose wife had the right to two “lairs” in an old burying-ground, said she brought him nothing “but twa back-breeds i' the red land o' the Morton.”