Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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DUDDIE, DUDDY, adj. ¹. Also †dudy. Superl. duddiest.

1. Ragged, tattered. Gen.(exc. I.)Sc. Also in n.Eng. dial.Sc. 1718 Ramsay Chr. Kirk iii. xvii. in Poems (1721):
Your Tippanizing, scant o' Grace, Quoth she, gars me gang duddy.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xxx.:
There isna a wheen duddie bairns to be crying after ane.Sc. 1936 J. G. Horne Flooer o' the Ling 17:
The duddy socks, yestreen ye missed, Are darned an' flypit in yer kist.Abd. 1790 A. Shirrefs Poems 145:
About his shoulders was a duddy cloak, And in his hand, a knotted branch of oak.m.Sc. 1988 William Neill Making Tracks 23:
The Doctor's Messan set Scottish paitren
tae mak oor hoggs thair Scottish lugmairks tine.
For speakin Scots wee duddie bairns are skelpit.Per. 1857 J. Stewart Sketches 41:
But he was kent by a' fock, By duddy fock an' braw fock.Edb. 1773 R. Fergusson Poems (1925) 59:
Now ilka glaikit scholar lown May dander wae wi' duddy gown.Ayr. 1786 Burns Twa Dogs ll. 75–76:
Himsel, a wife, he thus sustains, A smytrie o' wee, duddie weans.Ayr. 1821 Galt Ayrshire Legatees ii.:
They were so well-bred, and the very duddiest of them spoke such a fine style of language.Gall. 1901 Trotter Gall. Gossip 358:
Nae duddy weans rinnin scraichin aneath the bed noo whun A come in.Kcb. 1789 D. Davidson Seasons 65:
His weans nae duddy signs did shaw, Nor, poortith proof.Slk. 1818 Hogg B. of Bodsbeck I. 159:
Then there was wee Willie the nout-herd, him that had the gude knife an' the duddy breeks.

2. “Of a bone or joint: Having fragments of meat still adhering; not cleanly picked” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.).

3. Combs.: †(1) duddy betheral, a scarecrow; (2) duddieheid, adj., “wearing a short shawl round the head” (Sc. 1911 S.D.D. Add.); (3) duddy-wallets, “a tatterdemalion” (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.).(1) Ayr. 1821 Galt Ann. Parish xxxvi.:
A duddy betheral, set up to fright the sparrows from the peas.