Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: <1700, 1700, 1775-1804, 1873-1936
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BROCKIT, BROCKED, Brocket, Broked, Brokit, Brewket, adj. Also brucket, -it, -ed, bruiked (Abd. 1761 Abd. Journal (1 June)); broaked in sense 3. (Ags. 1777 Dundee Weekly Mag. (4 April) 216). Coloured like a badger, i.e. with black and white stripes or spots. [′brɔkɪt, ′brokɪt, ′brukɪt]
1. Applied to animals, gen. to a cow or sheep, esp. an animal with a white streak down its face. Hence comb. brucked-faced. Gen.Sc.Sc. 1775 D. Loch Essay on Trade 6:
The brucked faced sheep, so much raised in Tweedale.Sc. 1904 Lads of Wamphray in Ballads (ed. Child) No. 184 vii.:
Twixt the Staywood Buss and Langside Hill, They stelld the broked cow and branded bull.ne.Sc. 1884 D. Grant Lays and Leg. of the North (1908) 13:
My sister lost the brocket lam' She got fae Tammie Durrit.Mry. 1873 J. Brown Round Table Club 232:
It [serpent] had a bonnie speckl't, brokit skin, an' the man said it eatit only ance in the month.Kcd. 1699 Black Book Kcd. (1843) 109:
He said that the brocket cow was his own.Lnk. c.1779 D. Graham Writings (1883) II. 162:
Ah! how we drank other's healths with the broe of the brewket ewes.Wgt. 1804 R. Couper Poems II. 65:
And twa three brockit fleas.
2. Applied to persons: streaked with dirt; filthy; disfigured, lit. or fig. Also of things: marked in some way, as with soot, mud, etc., streaky, lined. Gen.Sc. Sc. 1936 W. Soutar Poems in Scots & ~English (1961) 103:
As bruckit frae the brundin bale The rizzard grapes upraucht.Ags. 1891 A. T. Matthews Poems and Songs 30:
Oh! gin oor fauts were a' revealed, There wad be mony a brockit chield.w.Sc. 1887 Jam.6:
Ay, badger he is! brockit, barken't, saur't an' a'.Gsw. 1877 A. G. Murdoch Laird's Lykewake 27, 189:
Sae, owre the bruckit wa' we clam' . . . That brucket "cauld clay biggin".Dmf. 1899 Country Schoolmaster (Wallace) 371:
Her arms and neck, the servants say, Are made o' unco bruckit clay.Tyr. 1928 “M. Mulcaghey” Ballymulcaghey (1929) ii.:
Long Tam was coortin' a daughter of brockit [pock-marked] James Wallace's of the Brae face.
3. Applied to oats: black and white growing promiscuously (Abd. 1700 S.C. Misc. (1906) II. 21) .Bch. 1910 A. Murray Peterhead a Century Ago 50:
Oats were then mostly what was termed brocked oats or bearded oats or small corn with now and then a sprinkling of wild or native oats, and this [kind of] oats, having a long black aven, had to be separated before going to the mill.Abd. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 VI. 17:
Some brocked, but little, if any, small oats are now raised.
4. Applied to cloth: “having a confused medley of colours” (Arg.2 1936).
5. Comb.: brocket-ground, brockit grun, “a mixture of clay and boggy land” (Ant. 1898 E.D.D.); “moory ground” (Uls. 1924 A Screed frae Cookstown in North. Whig (Jan.), brockit grun).
[Of Scand. orig. Cf. Norw. dial. brokutt, Dan. broget, flecked, streaked. O.Sc. has brokit, brokkit, brocked, of mixed colour, esp. black and white, earliest date 1581; also brokit aits (1578) with meaning as in 3 (D.O.S.T.).]You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Brockit adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 5 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/brockit>
