Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

MIRE, n.² Also myre; mehr; -more (Bnff. 1963 Dufftown News (2 Nov.) 3). A torch consisting of a tube, such as formed by a hollowed-out cabbage- or kail-stalk, filled with tow, and producing a great volume of smoke when lighted, usu. in comb. reekie-mire, id. This torch was esp. used to blow smoke into dwelling-houses in the course of the traditional Halloween celebrations in Mry. Also v. to reekie-mire, to blow smoke into a house. [′mɑeər]Mry. 1889 T. L. Mason Rafford 56:
For then was rigged the reekie mire, Tae fit a keyhole when on fire, An' mak' auld bodies host and kink, An' tae the door barefitted slink.Mry. 1922 Swatches o' Hamespun 31:
Na, na, but there's ayont the yett A busy reekiemyre gaun.Mry. 1929 J. M. McPherson Prim. Beliefs 8:
At Petty, it was customary for the young lads wearing masks to go from house to house “bundering” at the doors and puffing smoke into the dwelling houses. This ceremonial was known in Burghead in the eighties of last century as “burning the reekie mehr” — a cabbage or kail stock, hollowed and filled with kindled tow, being the mehr.