Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

FORCE, n., v. Sc. usages:

I. n. 1. The greater part, the bigger half (Bnff.², Uls.⁴ 1946). Obs. in Eng.Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 52:
The force o' the neeps'll be doon this week.

2. Sc. law phr.: force and fear, the equivalent of Eng. duress, a translation of the older law term vis et metus.Sc. 1700 Morison Decisions 16505:
He raises a reduction of the precept and bill, which Scotshall had accepted, and insisted on these grounds; I^mo, That it was null, being extorted by force and fear.Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles iv. i. § 10:
Reduction is not competent upon every degree of force or fear; it must be such as would shake a man of constancy and resolution.Sc. 1928 Green's Encyclopedia VI. 637:
To make a contract voidable on the ground of force and fear the threatened action must be illegal and unwarrantable.

II. v. In ppl.adj. forcing, of weather: growing, ripening, good for bringing on crops (ne.Sc. 1952). Cf. Forcie, 2. In phrs.: †1. forced fire, fire produced by the friction of dry wood, Need-Fire, q.v.; 2. forced grun', ground which has been made up in levelling and is therefore less stable, banked-up ground (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 53, forst —; wm.Sc.¹, Arg.³, Kcb.¹⁰, Uls.⁴ 1953).1. Sc. 1703 M. Martin Descr. West. Isles 113:
The Inhabitants here did also make use of a Fire called Tin-Egin, i.e. a forced Fire, or Fire of Necessity, which they used as an Antidote against the Plague or Murrain in Cattle.Sc. 1815 C. I. Johnstone Clan-Albin II. 239:
When the cattle of any district were seized with this fatal distemper, the method of cure or prevention was to extinguish all the domestic fires, and rekindle them by forced fire caught from sparks emitted from the axle of the great wool-wheel, which was driven furiously round by the people assembled.