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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BAUCHLE, BACHLE, bauchel(l), bechle, v.¹ Ppl.adjs. bauchled, bachlet and bauchlin'.

1. To shamble, to wear shoes out of shape; to distort, to spoil;  to cause trouble or harm to, to put to annoyance or loss. Ppl.adjs. bauchlin, bechlin, shambling, slipshod; bauchled, badly shod, down at heels, worn or battered out of shape, in gen. Gen.Sc.Bnff.⁶ c.1920:
Bachle, to wear the heels of one's shoes unequally. “My auld bachlet sheen.”Bnff. 1926 M. Symon in Sc. Mag. (Aug.) 357:
An' foo we blessed the pow o' him Anaith the bauchled tile!Bnff. 1933 M. Symon Deveron Lays 29:
An' foo we blessed the pow o' him Anaith the bauchled tile!Abd.(D) 1915 H. Beaton At the Back o' Benachie 46:
It's a Gweed's blessin' he wan hame, for it wis a winner it didna bauchel him a'th'gidder.Abd. 1915 H. Beaton Benachie 28:
I widna bauchle masel' wi' him.Abd. 1981 Christina Forbes Middleton The Dance in the Village 39:
I made up ma min' I'd jist mak for hame
It wis hardly a nicht tae dauchle
I wis sowpit an' sodden an' looked sic a sicht
An' ma sheen were beginnin' tae bauchle. Abd. 1992 David Toulmin Collected Short Stories 208:
Stitching a patch on the leather-work of some bauchled old shoe.Abd. 2000 Sheena Blackhall The Singing Bird 15:
An syne aroon ma feet there lowped
A cripple-fittit cooshie,
A bauchled, shauchled, manglit quine
Bumbazed bi aa the stushie.ne.Sc. 1996 Ashleigh Anderson in Sandy Stronach New Wirds: An Anthology of Winning Poems and Stories from the Doric Writing Competitions of 1994 and 1995 14:
She bides at oor hoose,
She's aul an she's trauchled.
I dinna really like her
Her feet are aa bauchled.Ags. 1879 T. Ormond in A. L. Fenton Forfar Poets 147:
Bauchled shoon an' tatit pallet.Ags. 1882 Brechin Advert. (7 March) 3:
But though a cobbler chiel himsel', Tam aye was puirly bachled. Ags. 1895 Caledonia I. 290:
A wee bechlin youchal, puir bowleggit drochle.m.Sc. 1917 J. Buchan Poems 27:
O' a' man's warks ye canna name Ane that's no bauchled.Gsw. 1845 R. Husband Poems 113:
Poor silly, padlin', bachl'd being. Lnk. 1919 G. Rae 'Tween Clyde and Tweed 59:
Ye wadna gie three braw half-croons for a' that he has on, An' yet that bauchlin' body is a laird.w.Dmf. 1908 J. L. Waugh Robbie Doo (2nd ed.) 14:
And in the pot among my guid vegetables was that auld bauchled buit, that has been aboot the hoose since my brither Andra deid.

2. To treat contemptuously; to jilt.Lth. 1825 Jam.²:
To bauchle a lass, to jilt a young woman.Lnk. 1887 A. Wardrop Mid-Cauther Fair 132:
Bradlaugh [has been] bauchell'd oot an' in.

3. To bungle, botch, mismanage (Per. 1975). Sc. 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped x.:
"It was Shuan bauchled it," I heard one say.