Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GROZE, v., n. Also grose, gruse, and deriv. ¶grozen. [gro:z; Fif. grʌz]

I. v. †1. To crush, compress (Fif. 1808 Jam., gruse), “to press a person or thing so as to hurt or damage by the squeeze” (Mry. 1813 W. Leslie Agric. Nai. & Mry. 457). Also freq. gruzzle, “to bruise, to press together” (Fif. 1825 Jam.).Fif. 1827 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd 86:
Bellies, the heicher they were and fatter, Were dunsched in and grus'd the flatter, Wi' mickle pyne, but doubt.Sc.(E) 1913 H. P. Cameron Imit. Christ iii. xxiii.:
Grozen the tempins whilk wi' grit strouth sailyie me.

†2. To rub off the sharp edge of a tool.Lth. 1808 Jam.:
To grose a mason's iron, to rub it on a stone till the sharp edge of it be taken off.

†3. To graze the skin.Ib.:
I have grosed the skin aff my thumb.

4. Mining: “to turn a chisel in the bottom of a borehole by which means the borer, from a sense of feeling and hearing, knows when a change of strata occurs” (Edb.⁶ 1940, groze).

II. n. A squeeze (Fif. 1957).