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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BACKSET, n. and v. [′bɑksɛt (noun), bɑk′sɛt (verb)]

1. n.

(1) Anything that checks one's course or causes a relapse: of health, worldly circumstances, vegetation, etc. (In Mod.Eng. but of Sc. origin (N.E.D.).) Gen.Sc.Sc. 1721 R. Wodrow Hist. Sufferings Church of Scot. II. 555:
The people of God have got many Backsets one after another.Sc. 1743 R. Maxwell Select Trans. Soc. of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agric. in Scot. 82:
Even those [weeds] they leave cannot, after such a Backset and Discouragement, come to Seed so late in the Season.Bnff.² 1932:
My leddy's fleein' some heich; she'll get a backset yet.Lnk. 1922 T. S. Cairncross Scot at Hame 54:
I've had back-sets syne, as ony chiel may ha'e.Ayr. 1900 “G. Douglas” House w. the G. Shutters (1901) xiii.:
There's been a backset in Barbie for the last year.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 37–38:
Backset — A setting-back of any thing, or a something that retards: thus, wet weather is a “backset” to the farmer in “the hay and harvest time.”Ant. 1898 R.M.Y. in E.D.D.:
Backset is always used of a relapse after illness, never in a moral sense.

(2) Same as Back-tack, q.v. Now obs.Sc. 1792 J. Spalding Hist. of the Troubles in Scotland I. 334:
The earl of Marischal . . . having got this tack, sets the same customs in backset, to some well-affected burgesses of Aberdeen.

(3) “A compensation, ‘set off'” (A.W. in E.D.D. Suppl. 1905). [(3) not known to our correspondents.]

2. v.

(1) To weary, fatigue, worry.Bnff.² 1932:
I tyauv't wi' the fir-reet till I was backset, an' was forc't t' leav't efter a'.Abd.² 1932:
The crosses I've met wi' the day fairly backset me.

(2) To disgust or upset.Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 216.Abd.² 1932:
Castor-ile fair backsets me.

(3) in ppl.adj. backsettin, discouraging, forbidding, unforthcoming (Ags. 1975). Sc. 1931 J. Bridie The Anatomist ii. i.: 
Och, ye're awfu' backsettin' the nicht.