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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

TEST, n.¹, v.¹. 

I. n. As in Eng., an oath or declaration exacted as an assurance of loyalty to a regime, etc., specif. in Scot. that prescribed by the Test Act of 1681 aimed at imposing on the extreme Covenanters compliance with Episcopacy in the Church of Scotland. Its enforcement led to the Killing Times (see Kill, v., 1.). Hence tester, one who took this oath. Hist.Sc. 1721 R. Wodrow Sufferings iii. v. s.6:
This complex and self-contradictory Oath of the Test, indeed wants its Parallel among all the Oaths that ever were forced upon a Protestant Nation.Sc. 1732 Six Saints (Fleming 1901) II. 58:
The Parliament sat down the day following July 28, which framed the cursed test, with seven contradictory oaths in it, which Argyle took with explication.Sc. 1859 J. Taylor Pictorial Hist. II. 720:
Dalrymple, the late president of the court of session, and Fletcher of Saltoun, who had opposed the test, retired to the Continent.Sc. 1909 A. Lang Hist. Scot. III. 367:
The takers of the test had to swear both to the Confession (which makes Christ head of the Kirk) and also to the headship of Charles II.

II. v. To impose an oath on, to attest. Rnf. 1873 J. Nicholson Tibbie's Garland 22:
D'ye ken I've join'd the Templar ranks They've listit, testit me for life.