Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1976 (SND Vol. X). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

WECHTIE, adj. Also we(i)chty, waichty; wa(u)chty (Abd. 1822 W. Alexander My Ain Folk 155; e.Lth. 1896 J. Lumsden Battles vi., Abd. 1955 W. P. Milne Eppie Elrick vii.). Sc. forms and usages of Eng. weighty. In Sc. used of persons or animals: physically heavy and solidly corpulent (ne.Sc. 1973). Phr. wechty i' the fit, well advanced in pregnancy. Cf. Heavy, 2. [′wɛçte]Fif. 1827 W. Tennant Papistry 49:
Auld Saunders Clerk, a man o' echty, Though eild-encumber't now and wechty.Ags. 1894 J. B. Salmond B. Bowden (1922) 116:
You wudda been better to hae gotten a jook to sit on thae eggs if you wantit to bring them oot. I doot you're gey wechty for them.Edb. 1895 J. Tweeddale Moff 169:
He's sae wechty on his feet.Sc. 1991 John McDonald in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 89:
Atween twa days
the gean's cam wechty
wi a freithin o flouers Abd. 1995 Flora Garry Collected Poems 18:
An syne ma waesome wechty fraacht
Growes licht, yer sangie warms ma veins
Like some aal ballad's liltin strains
Or like a love-brew's heidy draacht. ne.Sc. 1996 Ian Middleton in Sandy Stronach New Wirds: An Anthology of Winning Poems and Stories from the Doric Writing Competitions of 1994 and 1995 40:
Nae modern-day machinery then ti ease the waichty birn, ... Abd. 2000 Sheena Blackhall The Singing Bird 16:
Pine branches raxx their rosit eaves,
Wechty wi cones an preen-prick leaves.