Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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TEN, adj., numeral. Sc. usages:

1. In combs., phrs. and derivs.: (1) catch-the-(lang) ten(s), see Catch, v., 2. (7); (2) langten(s), see Lang, adj., 6. (55); (3) ten-a-foxy, a children's game (see quot.); (4) ten-faul(d), adj., adv., tenfold, ten times; (5) ten-hours, ten o' clock (see Oor); a slight feed given to horses at work in the middle of the morning (wm.Sc. 1880 Jam.). Also attrib. as ten hour bell, a bell rung at ten o' clock at night, esp. in Edinburgh and other towns, to warn the citizens to retire to their own homes and to bed. See elders' hours s.v. Elder; ten-hours' bite (see above); ten hours drum, a drum beaten on the streets of Edinburgh at 10 p.m. as a signal for social gatherings to disperse; (6) ten merk court, see Merk, 1. (2); (7) tenpenny, †(i) a school grammar and reading book costing tenpence, gen. the third in order of difficulty in the series of such text-books. See Penny, 4. (2), sixpenny s.v. Six; the class using this book; (ii) in comb. tenpenny land, a piece of land in the Western Highlands orig. paying Skat of ten pennies, ten Pennylands, q.v. Hist.; (8) ten p(o)und land, land orig. assessed in the Extent at the annual value of ten pounds. See Pundland. Hist.; (9) tensie, one of the figures in the game of chuckstone, in which the stones must be thrown in the air and caught in the palm without being allowed to crack together (Ags. 1972); (10) tensome, ten, a group of ten. Also attrib. = consisting of ten. See -Some, suff.(3) Ags. 1909 A. Reid Regality Kirriemuir 399:
Others, like “Ten-a-foxy”, are known elsewhere by other names, such as the “Cock-a-roosy”, or “Kings and Queens” of Edinburgh gamins.(4) m.Lth. 1811 H. MacNeill Bygane Times 3:
Nor markets raised, nor ten-fauld Taxes.Abd. 1824 G. Smith Douglas 16:
The second's ten-faul waur, lass, min' ye that.Wgt. 1877 G. Fraser Sketches 210:
Tho' the storm was tenfald mair.(5) Wgt. 1703 Session Bk. Wigtown (1934) 53:
The Session for preventing of unseasonable drinking and the usual abuses that follow thereupon do appoint Drummoral to perambulate the town this week every other night at least after the ringing of the ten hour bell.Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 113:
Noisy Ten-hours Drum Gars a' your Trades gae dandring Home.Ayr. 1785 Burns 2nd Ep. to J. Lapraik ii.:
Dealing thro' amang the naigs Their ten-hours' bite.Sc. a.1850 Vagabond Songs (Ford 1901) 87:
When he heard the ten-'oor bell, For hame he would run.e.Lth. 1902 Longman's Mag. (Aug.) 310:
The auld lord would hae nae lichts in the house after the ten hours.(7) (i) Kcb. 1893 Crockett Stickit Minister 35:
They stammered like a boy new into the tenpenny.(ii) Sc. 1831 J. Logan Sc. Gael (1876) II. 64:
The Highlanders were till lately universally accustomed to move from the Bailte Geamhras, or winter towns, to the Arich, or breeding grounds, in the hills; every davoch, or tenpenny land, and even each farm, having a certain portion of mountain territory for this purpose.wm.Sc. 1944 P.S.A.S. LXXVIII. 55:
This size of holding is found in charters, as in the case of the Ten Pennylands of Arran.(8) Ayr. 1787 Burns My Lord a-hunting iii.:
Her ten-pund lands o' tocher gude Were a' the charms his lordship lo'ed.(10) Abd. 1768 A. Ross Helenore (S.T.S.) 102:
They're nae sick fools, ye'd tensome get for ane.Sc. 1871 P. H. Waddell Psalms xxxiii. 2:
On the lut wi' the tensome thairms.Dmf. 1898 J. Paton Castlebraes 284:
The glee o' Tensome an' Twalsome Faimilies.

†2. In pl.: clogs or wooden shoes bound with iron worn by ploughmen who generally require size ten (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 138).