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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SLED, n., v. Also slede, slaid, slead, slade. See also Slid. [sled, slɛd]

I. n. 1. A sledge (Lnk. 1712 Minutes J.P.s (S.H.S.) 129; Sc. 1887 Jam.; Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928); Uls. 1953 Traynor). Gen.Sc.; also applied to a type of cart with solid wheels. Now only in Eng. dial. and U.S. Deriv. sledder, a man who drives or uses a sledge. Combs. sled-fit, -fut, †-trame, a runner or skid of a sledge, sled-ful, as much as a sledge can hold, sled-saddle, a saddle for a sledge-harness (Sc. 1808 Jam.), sladesman, the driver of a sledge, a carter.Slg. 1703 Slg. Burgh Rec. (1889) II. 100:
To cause the toune and hospitals tenents carye the stones at Newport to the tolbooth, soe far as can be caryed upon slades.Edb. 1704 Burgh Rec. Edb. (1967) 94:
The Coatchmen cairters sledders coallmen and burdine bearers.Rxb. 1721 Trans. Hawick Arch. Soc. (1912) 13:
For a sled fut when the robbish was taken away at the crose.Rs. 1727 W. MacGill Old Ross-shire (1909) I. 133:
7 pair new wheels new slade trames.Sc. 1732 Six Saints (Fleming 1901) II. 30:
I have seen corpses drawn in sleds.Sc. 1753 W. Maitland Hist. Edb. 327:
The Carters and Sledders in Edinburgh.Rxb. 1826 A. Scott Poems 40:
Things ca'd sleds, alang ilk sloppin' dale. To inn the corn, on legs were made to trail.Per. 1831 Perthshire Advert. (13 Oct.):
4 excellent carts, all nearly new; 3 corn Sledes.Mry. 1839 W. Rhind Sketches Mry. 13:
The simple pannier, borne on the horse's back, began to give way, as roads improved, to the slede, or sledge, and the kelloch. The former was a rudely constructed frame of wood, dragged without wheels on the ground.Rnf. 1845 Private MSS:
Alexander Peaston, Sladesman. Greenock.Bnff. 1880 J. F. S. Gordon Chron. Keith 437:
The harvest was got in upon sleds, i.e., two long poles trailing behind a horse, and connected by a crosspiece.Ork. 1963 Sc. Studies VII. ii. 161:
Sleds were still being employed till fairly recent times.

2. A child's cart, gen. constructed of short planks set on to the chassis of a disused pram, a Guider, q.v. (Ags., Edb., Ayr. 1970).

†3. By extension: (1) a clumsy badly-built boat (Sh. 1904 E.D.D.); (2) a large flat stone, a flagstone, freq. in pl. flat rocks on a beach, a pavement.(2) Ork. 1929 Marw.:
Hid's frosty this morning; take care an' no slide on the sleds as thoo goes oot.

†II. v. To miss one's footing, slip, slither (Sh. 1904 E.D.D.).