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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

DRAUNT, DRA(W)NT, v. and n. Also †drunt, drint. Also found in Eng. dial. [drɑ(:)nt]

‡1. v., intr. and tr. To drawl, to whine, to drone (out) (Ayr.⁴ 1928: Kcb.⁴ 1900). Also fig. Ppl.adj. drauntin(g).Sc. 1724–27 Ramsay T. T. Misc. (1733) II. 141:
To drivel and drant, While I sigh and gaunt.Bnff. 1853 Meg and Geordie in Bnffsh. Jnl. (3 May):
When she sleeps and when she wakes, She dreams and draunts o' Geordie Daw.Kcd. 1909 in Colville 162:
An' in simmer it wuz swarmin' wi' birds an' wi' bees, Which cheert his auld heart wi' the drintin' o't.Fif. 1827 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd 64:
Bagpipes begoud to drunt and rair.Edb. 1773 R. Fergusson Poems (1925) 53:
But worth gets poortith an' black burning shame, To draunt and drivel out a life at hame.Edb. 1894 P. H. Hunter J. Inwick v.:
“I no' need you to preach at me, Geordie,” says I; “ye're no' at ane o' your prayer-meetins the noo.” . . . “Ay, ay,” says he — ye ken their drauntin, grainin way —.Ayr. 1796 Burns To Col. de Peyster (Cent. ed.) viii.:
But lest you think I am uncivil To plague you with this draunting drivel.

†2. n. A slow, drawling manner of speaking, a whine; a slow and dull tune (Sc. 1808 Jam.).Sc. 1721 Ramsay Poems 33:
But dinna wi' ye'r Greeting grieve me. Nor wi' your Draunts and Droning deave me.Sc. 1737 Ramsay Proverbs (1776) 37:
He that speaks wi' a drawnt and sells with a cant, Is right like a snake in the skin of a saunt.Sc. 17.. H. G. Graham Soc. Life Scot. (1899) II. 26:
To weep, and then smile raptly as the long supplications . . . were uplifted in the sanctified sing-song — or “drant,” as it was termed — was the mark of the gifted. This peculiar cant or whine was specially the characteristic of the “antediluvians” and of those who admired and copied them.Sc. 1820 Blackwood's Mag. (Aug.) 513:
Stint yere Cameronian draunt, my douce auld man.Sc. 1873 D. Hogg Rev. J. Wightman 380:
The drant was a peculiarly solemn drawling whine or intonation, made use of in the pulpit by the Scottish clergy till about fifty years ago.Lnk. 1922 T. S. Cairncross Scot at Hame 16:
Kirks are for fules wi' drant and sang And auld-warl' passion.