Show Search Results Show Browse

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

MOLLIGRANT, n., v. Also moli-, mollie-, molly-; mouli-; mully-, mulli-; mali-, mala-; -grunt; -grump(h). Cf. Molligrups.

I. n. Sometimes in pl. on analogy with Molligrups, q.v.: a complaint, a lamentation (Ags. 1808 Jam.; Fif., Lth. 1926 Wilson Cent. Scot. 255; Ork., em.Sc. 1963); a state of peevish dissatisfaction, a fit of spleen (Rxb. 1825 Jam., maligrumph, ‡Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.).Rxb. 1811 A. Scott Poems 19:
Waes me, the mulligrumphs she's ta-en.
Sc. 1825 Scott Letters (Cent. ed.) IX. 261:
Your molligrunts so hampered me as to cost us at least one novel.
Rnf. 1835 D. Webster Rhymes 49:
Tibbie's Moligrant; Or, Satire a-la-mode.
Ags. 1853 W. Blair Aberbrothock 4:
But I 'sure ye, Tam Nettles was in a bonny mollygrant that nicht.
Fif. 1864 W. D. Latto T. Bodkin xxv.:
I'm the sport o' the mullygrumphs, sorrow an' care.
Abd. 1895 G. Williams Scarbraes 6:
It doesna set ye to be ga'in aboot . . . makin' a molligrant aboot the weather an' the craps.
Ork. 1915 Old-Lore Misc. VIII. i. 43:
Hid waasna ony eus for da ald man makan ony molligrant aboot id.
Edb. 1938 Fred Urquhart Time Will Knit (1988) 85:
"There's no use talking about it till they hear from the Sanitary," Uncle Jim said. "Time enough then to make a molligrant about it. ..."
Edb. 1949 F. Urquhart The Ferret v. xiii.:
Seeing you're making such a mollygrant I'll tell you here and now.

II. v. To complain, to grumble, to lament (Per. 1915 Wilson L. Strathearn 258; Abd., em.Sc., Lnk. 1963). Vbl.n. molligranting, -gruntin, a peevish, whining lamentation, a voluble complaint.Fif. 1886 G. Bruce Poems 203:
Yet there was no molligranting — nor fear of Death.
Sc. 1913 H. P. Cameron Imit. Christ iii. xix.:
Quat yer mollie-gruntin; skance My sufferin an' that o' My saunts.
Abd.15 1930:
Fat 're ye haudin a' the malagruntin' aboot, ye discontented vratch?
Gsw. 1947 H. W. Pryde 1st Bk. of the McFlannels vii.:
He's going to be a teacher, and none of his molliegruntin — or yours either — 'll make me change it.

[A conflation of Eng. mulligrubs and grant, Grumph, to grunt. See Molligrups,n.]

You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.

"Molligrant n., v.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 28 Mar 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/molligrant>

18819

snd

Hide Advanced Search

Browse SND:

    Loading...

Share: