Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

PROFIT, n. Sc. usages:

1. The increase of natural products, milk, grain, etc., the yield of a cow (Sh., Kcb. 1966). Phr. to take the profit(s) (from, of), of witches, goblins, or the like: to prevent or spoil the natural yield by means of spells (see quots.).Abd. 1735 Monymusk Papers (S.H.S.) 129:
Profits of a milk cow, and vessells for milk.Sh. 1822 S. Hibbert Descr. Shet. 575:
Whenever sacrifices were not the regular pay of the goblin's drudgery, the brewing was spoiled, which was named “taking away the profit from the malt.”Sc. 1861 C. Rogers Sc. Character 251:
That a person may take away and procure for herself the summer profits of her neighbour's cows, it is the practice to go clandestinely and pluck a handful of grass from the roof of the byre, and give it to her own cows, thereby supposing that the milk and butter which should have been her neighbour's will by this means become hers.Sh. 1899 J. Spence Folk-Lore 139–40:
Johnsmas was the season when witchcraft was most dreaded, and persons skilled in the black art deprived their neighbours of the profit of their milk and butter. . . . It was difficult to preserve one's self from scathe, as the profit was supposed to be taken by such simple means as stepping over a cow's tether, plucking a handful of grass off the byre wall, or crossing a woman's path when on her way to milk the cows.Sh. 1951 Sh. Folk Book II. 9:
Der some-een taen de profit o' wir fysh.

2. In Mining: “gas coal or shale overlying and worked along with a coal seam” (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 52), sc. incidental increase or by-product.