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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1976 (SND Vol. X). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

WABBIT, adj. 1. Also wubbit, wappit (m.Sc. 1922 J. Buchan Huntingtower viii.), whappit. Exhausted, tired out, played out, feeble, without energy (Per., Fif., Lth., Ayr. 1915–26 Wilson; Ags., Slg., Rnf., Lnk. 1921 T.S.D.C.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.). Gen. (exc. I.) Sc. Freq. with out (Ags., Fif., Ayr. 1973).Lnk. 1895 W. Stewart Lilts 59:
Braithless, blinded, a' but wabbit, On I sprauchled, heid agee.
Ayr. 1901 Kilmarnock Standard (12 Jan. 1935):
But I maun pu' my pownie in Ere Pegasus be wabbit.
Lnk. 1910 C. Fraser Glengonnar 78:
She sat doon, clean wabbit oot, pechin'.
Ags. 1928 Scots Mag. (May) 145:
You're lookin' fair wubbit. What ails ye the day?
Fif. 1937 St Andrews Cit. (12 June) 7:
The stoutest . . . member of the party was unfortunate enough to attach himself to one of its most vigorous and confessed afterwards to have felt “gey wabbit and puffed oot.”
Gsw. 1950 H. W. Pryde McFlannel Family Affairs 25:
I am feeling a bit wabbit after all that carry-on.
Rxb. 1972 Hawick News (7 Jan.):
The weariness of being fair wabbit is one, I feel, both of the body and the spirit, and comes only after a tremendous output of physical and mental energy.
Gsw. 1985 Stanley Baxter and Alex Mitchell Stanley Baxter's Suburban Shockers 98:
It happened after Caroline McCloot had flung her final dumpling. She lay back on the grass and intimated that she was utterly wabbit. The time had now came for me to fling for the Golden Dumpling Medal.
Edb. 1998 Green Shoots, an occasional magazine of poetry and verse by the people of Edinburgh 5 1:
Ah feel whappit, an washed oot,
Juist like a auld wet flannel cloot,

2. Of things, finished, no longer useful.em.Sc. 1992 Ian Rankin Strip Jack (1993) 54:
The rumours were still rife anyway; rumours that Great London Road [police station] was shagged out, wabbit, past its sell-by. Rumours that it would be shut down.
Arg. 1995:
It's gettin a wee bit wabbit.

[Orig. uncertain. In this form and usage the word is of relatively recent date but it may be associated with O.Sc. wobat in Dunbar's ald wobat carle, broken-down old man, where wobat is taken to be an attrib. use of the word which appears later as SND Oobit. There may have been some influence from SND Wab, n., 1. (3) (vi) and (x), but the subsequent history of the sense development is defective.]

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"Wabbit adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 28 Mar 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/wabbit>

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