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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

CREESHIE, CREESHY, Creechie, Creishie, Creishy, Creashie, Creashy, Creshie, Crishy, adj. Fat, greasy, dirty; often applied to weavers and sometimes used disparagingly. Also used subst. Known to Bnff.², Abd.², Ags.², Fif.¹⁰, Slg.³, Kcb.¹⁰ 1940. [′kriʃi, ′krɛʃɪ̢]Sc. [1724–27] Ramsay T. T. Misc. (1762) 334:
Get up, he cries, my crishy love, Support my sinking saul With something that is fit to chew.Sc. 1920 D. Rorie Auld Doctor 36:
She's just a muckle creishy lump That waddles like a juck.Bnff. 1853 Kate and the Weaver in Bnffsh. Jnl. (11 May):
The weaver aye sits at his leem, Aft he turns the creshie beam.Abd. 1996 Sheena Blackhall Wittgenstein's Web 61:
At the wheel, the same auld heid o the hoose, wi his muckle pow sunk doon in his thrapple: creashie, stinch; his blaik hairy hauns grippin the wheel. m.Sc. 1838 A. Rodger Poems 307:
O Mither, ony body! But a creeshy weaver.m.Sc. 1998 William Neill in Neil R. MacCallum Lallans 51 17:
An ye growe smuith an creeshie in yir carcase
an aye growe fatter wi yir baws for brains
while I maun tyauve ti keep fleish on ma banes
an hae ti shift ma airse ti whaur the wirk is.em.Sc. 1988 James Robertson in Joy Hendry Chapman 52 71:
An the whisky-flask aye seemed tae be hauf-fou, or hauf-tume, an the chips were aye het in their creishie pock. Fif. 1898 “S. Tytler” Mrs. Carmichael's Goddesses xiv.:
When Candlemas came round . . . he or she who arrived with the most “dips” or “moulds” achieved the distinction of being crowned “creishie” (greasy) king or queen for the year.wm.Sc. 1954 Robin Jenkins The Thistle and the Grail (1994) 18:
... Rutherford the creashy hypocrite, the festering scab, far from being ashamed of his past gloried in it. Ayr. 1791 Burns Tam o' Shanter (Cent. ed.) ll. 153–154:
Their sarks, instead o' creeshie flannen, Been snaw-white seventeen hunder linen! Proverbs: Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 81:Slk. c.1840 Sc. N. & Q. (Ser. 1) 53:
"Creeshie" was the name given to boys and girls who worked in the carding and spinning departments of woollen mills, and were either "feeders"or "piecers".

Combsters [wool-combers] are ay Creechie.Mearns c.1880 Mearns Proverbs in Montrose Standard (27 Sept. 1929):
Ye canna get honey oot o' a creeshy pig.

Combs.: 1. creashy bite, — dip (see quot.); 2. creeshy blaes, oil shale; 3. creeshy clod (see quots.); 4. creeshie-mealie, “oatmeal fried with fat. Sometimes called ‘skirl i' the pan'” (Ags. 1927 (per Ags.¹); Ags.² 1940).1. Rxb. 1883 Jedburgh Gazette (24 Nov.):
There is a custom observed in factories of giving new-comers what is known as a “creashy dip” or “creashy bite” — dipping a piece of wool or yarn in oil and thrusting it into the mouth of the person to be initiated into the craft.2. Sc. 1789 J. Williams Nat. Hist. Miner. Kingdom I. 82:
Some of these irregular strata of blaes . . . have a greasy or oily smoothness, and are called by Scots colliers creeshy blaes. creeshie wyver, specif. a local nickname for a native of Brechin, orig. a weaving town (Sc. 1899 W. Harvey Sc. Life 209).3. Abd. 1774 Weekly Mag. (5 May) 163:
There is found a particular kind of peat, that seems to contain a very great proportion of unctuosity . . . from which it has obtained the name of creeshy clods.Abd. 1811 G. S. Keith Agric. Abd. 532:
Small round pieces of moss, strongly impregnated with sulphur (called creeshy clods) are used for kindling the fire and giving light to the poorer peasants.4. Ags. 1925 Forfar Dispatch (3 Dec.) 3/3:
We wis awfu' for creeshie-mealie tae and sometimes it wis made wi' a chappit ingin and plenty shooet cut up sma' amon'd.