Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SWITCH, n., v. Sc. usages:

I. n. A swingle or bat for beating and scraping flax.Ork. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ V. 413:
The flax is manufactured with brakes, switches, and coarse heckles.

II. v. 1. To thresh (grain); to beat or scutch (flax).Rxb. 1821 A. Scott Poems 94:
To switch the lint was their concern.Sc. 1875 W. A. Smith Lewsiana 75:
The barley heads were taken, and the grain “switched” out of them.

2. To trim (a tree, hedge, etc.), to lop, prune, cut off projecting shoots. Vbl.n. switching (Sc. 1812 J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. I. 44).Sc. 1812 W. Nicol Planter's Kalend. 460:
Switch and clip thorn and other deciduous hedges.Sc. 1826 Scott Journal (29 Oct.):
Elms cruelly cropped, pollarded and switched.Sc. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 563:
Switching consists of lopping off straggling branches that grow more prominently from a hedge than the rest.Per. 1910 D. R. Kyd Rev. T. Hardy 130:
[The tinkers] could switch a hedge, build a dyke, cut their peats.

3. To beat (eggs etc).Dmb. 1986:
I like a switched egg.Edb. 1986:
Switch these eggs.Per. 2005:
... switch two eggs intae a glass o brandy ...