Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1730, 1840-1921, 1988
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STAPPLE, n.3 Also staple; stopple. [stɑpl]
1. The stalk of a (clay) tobacco-pipe (s.Sc. 1825 Jam.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Sh., em.Sc.(b), Lnk., sm. and s.Sc. 1971). Also dims. †stepplick (Jam.), stopplet, (Watson) id. and freq. in comb. pipe stapple. See also Pipe, I. 1. (9) and 5. Phr. to rain auld wives and pipe stapples, to rain in torrents, "cats and dogs" Cf. Pike, n., 2. (5).Sc. 1730 T. Boston Memoirs (1852) 13:
The school-doctor's sone having, in his childish folly, put a pipe-stopple in each of his nostrils.Sc. 1840 Wilson's Tales of the Borders V. 225:
It began to rain "auld wives and pipe stapples."Sc. 1847 R. Chambers Pop. Rhymes 231:
He just snappit it in tway wi' his fingers as ye wad do a pipe stapple.m.Lth. 1870 J. Lauder Warblings 60:
Can ye len's a preen to ripe Oot the stapple o' my pipe?Sh. 1898 Shetland News (5 Feb.):
He ramm'd da strae twartree times introw da stapple o' his pipe.Dmf. 1912 J. L. Waugh Robbie Doo 42:
He broke it ower his knee like a pipe stapple.m.Sc. 1988 William Neill Making Tracks 69:
Cley Cuttie said: I'm wi ye there ...
fir want o reek he'd cut his thrapple,
but brunt ma heid wi's lack o care
an in his pooch he brak ma stapple.
2. In coal-mining: a small short shaft connecting one coal-seam vertically with another in a mine. Also in n. Eng. mining usage.e.Lth. c.1845 P. McNeill Tranent (1884) 256:
They came upon a "sump" or "stapple", which they found to be some fathoms deep, and quite dry.Sc. 1883 Chambers's Jnl. (Nov.) 733:
I had to travel round about and get out by a stapple.e.Lth. 1887 P. McNeill Blawearie 46:
Driving them from the staple in a state bordering on suffocation.
3. = Eng. staple, a metal loop or eye, e.g. one used in the bolt or fastening of a door (Cld. 1880 Jam., stap(p)le, -ick). Obs. in Eng. in this form. Phr. staiple and ring, drunk, "three sheets in the wind",? like a horse that has worked its tether loose.Abd. 1921 T.S.D.C.:
John cam hame staiple and ring. A' doot there had been gey sups o' drink ga'in.
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"Stapple n.3". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 18 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/stapple_n3>
