Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Ta(i)d(e, n. Also: tead, teid, toad(e. [ME and e.m.E. tadde (c1175), tode (13th c.), tade (Cursor M.), toade (1568), OE tádiᵹe, tádie.] A toad, freq. as a type of something hateful or loathsome. Also proverb. and attrib.(a) c1420 Wynt. i 1389.
Nakyn best off wenym … As ask, or eddyre, tade [W. taid], or pade c1420 Wynt. v 603.
The tad begouth to wax, And wyth-in hym rerde and rax a1500 Henr. Test. Cress. 578.
My corps … With wormis and with taidis to be rent 1528 Lynd. Dreme 324.
Off this presoun the panis in speciall … Hounger and thrist, in steid of meit and drynk, And, for thare clethyng, tadis and scorpionis 1533 Boece 109b.
In Orknay was nowder wolf, fox, taid, serpent nor vthir noysum vnbeist a1585 Polwart Flyt. 689 (T).
Thy tratling, tinklar, wald gar ane taid spew 1595 Duncan App. Etym.
Bufo, rubeta, a tade(b) 1566-70 Buch. Comm. on Virgil Georgics i 184.
Bufo, a toade 1590–1 Crim. Trials I ii 218.
She … by the Divels perswasion … put in execution the kinges majesties death, in this manner … shee tooke a blacke toade, and did hang the same up by the heeles … and collected … the venom as it … fell from it [etc.] 1661 Soc. Ant. XXII 249.
That she wronged Baillie Wood by braying to pouder two toad's heads and ane peece of ane dead man's scull(c) c1590 J. Stewart 210 § 40.
Teids, scorpions, & vormes [pr. vornies] 1600-1610 Melvill 64.
I haiff dreamed an unsall dream, … I thought I saw a read-headit tead lope out of it [sc. the cup] 1656 Brodie Diary 184.
I … was feard for teads and asksproverb. 1584-9 Maxwall Commonpl. Bk. Prov. No. 228.
In the cleirest watter is the wgliest taideattrib. a1568 Bann. MS 140a/36.
Ane fowll taid cairle all tailȝour schankit a1585 Polwart Flyt. 187 (T).
Now, taidface, tak this for ane tant