Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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TED, v., n. Also tedd; tead. Pa.t. tedd, pa.p. tedd, ¶tede (Rnf. 1913 G. MacIndoe Wandering Muse 164). Sc. usages: I. v. 1. tr. To scatter, strew, spill, dissipate.Sc. 1794 Caled. Mercury (3 Nov.):
We . . . like as muckle caff, wa'd tedd 'im Amang the glaar.Rnf. 1813 E. Picken Poems I. 120:
I wish our fowks meetna some dool; Meg tedd the saut upo' the stool.Ayr. 1822 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage 152:
Jock's vile muck fork has ted them out o' a' gathering.Ags. 1853 W. Blair Aberbrothock 65:
The bonnie lang black hair a' teddit owre her face.

2. tr. To spread out in an orderly manner, to arrange, make tidy.Rxb. 1871 H. S. Riddell Poet. Wks. II. 279:
Then still again these locks he'd ted.wm.Sc. 1887 Jam.:
Ted your hair and tedd up the house.

3. intr. Of flax, lint, wool, etc.: to come apart, to separate into strands, to lie this way and that. Ppl.adj. tedd, entangled (n.Sc. 1808 Jam.).Sc. 1724 Treatise on Fallowing 65:
With a Mell or Mallet, beat out the Seed, carefully turning the Lint, and keeping a Weight upon it, to hinder it from teading, till you have got out all the Seed.

II. n. 1. A spreading out of hay to dry, in adj. teddy, fit to be tedded, used erron. in quot. of corn; poss. the writer means to imply winnowed, dried and ready to be harvested; a wind-row or swathe of hay.Edb. 1787 Edb. Ev. Courant (23 June):
The grain you t' ither day did saw . . . For Autumn's sonsy lassies braw To mak it teddy.Dmf. 1822 A. Cunningham Trad. Tales II. 104:
Numbers of sheep and teds of hay had been observed floating down about the dawn of the morning.

2. A tidying up, sorting out, setting to rights.Sc. 1887 Jam.:
Gie the room a ted up.