Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

CUTTY-STOOL, -STEEL, CUTTIE-, n. comb. Also very rarely simply cutty. [′kʌtɪ̢ ′styl Sc., but ne.Sc. -′stil]

1. A low wooden stool, usually three-legged. Formerly Gen.Sc. Known to Bnff.², Abd.⁹, Ags.², Fif.¹⁰, Slg.³, Kcb.¹ 1941.Sc. 1820 Scott Monastery iv.:
“Fie, fie, cummer,” said the matron of Glendearg, hitching her seat of honour, in her turn, a little nearer to the cuttie-stool on which Tibb was seated.ne.Sc. 1884 D. Grant Lays (1908) 3:
An' tables, chairs, an' cutty steels, On ane anither's taps.Abd.(D) 1915 H. Beaton Back o' Benachie 31:
Loot ye doon on th' cutty there, an' we'll see.Dmf. 1920 D. J. Bell-Irving Tally-Ho 90:
A' . . . fun him sittin' on a cutty stool shiverin' in front o' a big fire.

2. The stool of repentance (see second quot.). Once Gen.Sc. but now obs. except hist.Sc. 1788 Scots Mag. 559:
Ye've aiblins sat the cuttie-stool For some bit brat that cust the hule.Sc. 1791 T. Newte Tour Eng. and Scot. 251:
In most of the kirks there is a small gallery, fit to contain about half a dozen of persons, and painted black, placed in an elevated situation, near the roof of the church, which they call the cutty-stool, and on which offenders against chastity are forced to sit, during the time of divine service for three Sundays.Ags. 1820 A. Balfour Poems 265:
Although he'd sat the Cutty-stool, Mass-John wad spared him hauf the dool.wm.Sc. 1980 Anna Blair The Rowan on the Ridge 22:
The men in the howff might guffaw over a cocky lad perched on the cutty stool for making a cuckold of some pompous laird, ...Edb. 1773 R. Fergusson Poems (1925) 39:
Marion, for a bastard son, Upo' the cutty-stool was forc'd to ride, The waefu' scald o' our Mess John to bide.Rxb. 1821 A. Scott Poems 90:
Nor wi' the kirk need risk a swither On cutty-stool.