Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1847-1873, 1929, 1995-1996
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,1]
FILES, adv. Also fyles and dim. filies, fyllies (ne.Sc. 1951). n.Sc. form of Whiles, sometimes. See P.L.D. §134.Bnff. 1847 A. Cumming Tales 72:
Even in Prosperity there's trouble, Fyles foreign and domestic feuds.Mry. 1873 J. Brown Round Table Club 340:
Files ye wadna ken the tae en' fae the tither.Abd. 1929 Abd. Weekly Jnl. (28 Feb.) 6:
A canna dee wark for ma feet are that sair fyles wi' the caul'.Abd. 1995 Flora Garry Collected Poems 18:
Fyles ye myurr-myurr to me ma leen,
Yer quaverin myowies thin an smaa, ... Abd. 1996 Sheena Blackhall Wittgenstein's Web 5:
The stooks ay uphaund ane anither agin blufferts o storm an the win that blatteret the bare rigs-like a faimly, fyles.
You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Files adv.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 5 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/files>
