Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GOLLEY, n. A name given to the rounded article used as a ball in shinty.Sc. 1932 J. N. Macdonald Shinty 57:
Sometimes a rounded piece of wood, a ball of twisted hair, a cork, . . . carefully fashioned into a globular shape (and later termed a ‘nag, not, cad, gat, cor, coit, or golley') was substituted.