Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1952 (SND Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1908-1922
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]
DRILL, v.2 Also dry(i)ll. To move or work slowly and indolently, to loiter, dawdle (Ork. 1929 Marw.). Also in Eng. dial.
Hence drilly, adj., dawdling (Ib.).Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928):
To geng drillin aboot de wark.Sh. 1922 J. Inkster Mansie's Röd 35:
A lock o' folk comin' dryllin behint a', an' raabin a lock o' nonsense ta ane anidder.
Comb.: dr(y)illaskøvi, -skövie, a fisherman's tabu-name for the otter (Sh. 1899 J. Spence Folk-Lore 121, dryilla-skövie; 1908 Jak. (1928)), lit. the one that drags its tail.
[Cf. Norw. dial. drila, to move heavily and lazily, to trail along, to dawdle.]You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Drill v.2". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 1 Apr 2026 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/drill_v2>
