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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

†SKELET, n. Also skellet, scelet, skellat. A skeleton, lit. and fig. This form is now only dial. in Eng. since the 17th-c.Sc. 1707 Fountainhall Decisions (1761) II. 386:
The Lords thought this decreet had not so much as the visage and scelet of a decreet.Sc. 1720 A. Pennecuik Helicon 146:
The Skelet now hath got his Breast-Plate on.Abd. 1804 W. Tarras Poems 9:
Sae aff it fudder't owre the height, As fleet's a skellat.Sc. 1983 John McDonald in Joy Hendry Chapman 37 44:
Skellets chitter in a licht
nae dawin wrocht - a dreel o wund
vainishin intae a gloweret lift;
air is fire; banes sowther. em.Sc. 1991 James Robertson in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 172:
Wha'd awn thon skelet in the press
Wha didna want the past ahint him ayeweys
Proggin at his elbuck for a tanner? Fif. 1998 Tom Hubbard Isolde's Luve-Daith 4:
As mony year it seemed as we follaed thon fankle
O pit-mirk pads whaur I wis feart ti hyter
Ower the skelets o men an aiblins o weemen an weans: