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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

RANTLE, n. Also rand(a)le-; rannle-, -el-, -al- (Dmf. 1808 Scots Mag. (Aug.) 608); raunle-; runtle-; rammle-; rangle- (Ayr. 1910; Dmf. 1925 Trans. Dmf. & Gall. Antiq. Soc. XIII. 35); rungil-. Found only in combs.: 1. rannle-bauk(s), rammleback (Marw.), (1) a bar of wood or iron fixed across the chimney from which the chain and hook for holding cooking utensils is suspended (Slk. 1825 Jam.; ‡Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Lth. 1926 Wilson Cent. Scot. 262; Ork. 1929 Marw.); (2) a beam along the ridge of a roof, a roof-tree (Rxb. 1825 Jam., 1923 Watson W.-B.); (3) “a space up near the roof where odds and ends were stored to keep dry” (Ork. 1929 Marw.). See Bauk, n.¹, 2.; 2. rantle-tree, (1) = 1. (1) (Sc. 1808 Jam., Mry. 1813 W. Leslie Agric. Mry. 463; Uls. a.1908 Traynor (1953); Bwk. 1942 Wettstein; ne.Sc., Ags., Slg., Lnk., Slk. 1967); (2) = 1. (2) and, by extension, a roof; “the end of a rafter or beam” (Abd. 1790 A. Shirrefs Poems Gl.); (3) the horizontal beam along the wall of a cowshed to which the ends of the vertical stakes are fixed (Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl.; Per., m.Lth. 1967); (4) see quot.; (5) by extension: anything thin and pole-like, esp. a thin, shrivelled, gnarled person (Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl.). Also attrib.1. (1) Slk. 1817 Hogg Tales (1874) 155:
One wished them . . . “a bien rannle-bauks, and tight thack and rape o'er their heads.”2. (1) Abd. 1754 R. Forbes Journal 25:
I . . . clam out at t'ither door o' the coach, as gin I had been gain out at the lum o' a house that wanted baith crook and rantle-tree.Peb. 1802 C. Findlater Agric. Peb. 42:
The clips is linked upon a hook at the end of a chain, called the crook, which is attached to an iron rod, or wooden beam, called the rantle-tree, which is fixed across the chimney-stalk, at some distance above the fire.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 244:
The fire claucht the raunle tree, And brunt the lum and a'.Ayr. 1870 J. K. Hunter Life Studies 257:
Willie's lum was one of an old-fashioned wideness, with a rungiltree instead of a swee.Ayr. 1880 Jam. s.v. Lire:
The ratton ran up the rannle-tree Wi' a lump o' lean raw lure.Kcd. 1900 W. MacGillivray Glengoyne I. 33:
When in the house at tea with you, I saw it was open to the sky, with the rantle-tree across it, the crook hanging from it, with your pot at the end of it.Rxb. 1922 Kelso Chron. (18 Nov.) 4:
Man, the deil's i' the chumley; I see him sittin' on the rannel-tree.Abd. 1955 Buchan Observer (20 Sept.):
Cooking utensils were hung on a crook suspended from the “rantle-tree”, an iron bar fixed some distance up the vent.(2) Per. 1835 J. Monteath Dunblane Trad. 25:
A bacon ham, which hung suspended from the rantle-trees having excited the gluttonous cupidity of these men.Sc. 1842 D. Vedder Poems 198:
Ah! had we mony mae like thee, To prop the state's auld randle-tree.(3) Uls. 1942 E. E. Evans Irish Heritage 79:
Along one side of the byre, above the feeding place, runs the rannel- or revel-tree to which the vertical cow-stakes are secured at intervals: “thin as a ravel-tree” is an expression sometimes heard.(4) Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xviii.:
We wad rather gie a pund Scots to buy an unguent to clear our auld rannel-trees and our beds o' the English bugs as they ca' them.Sc. a.1832 Scott Works (1895–6) Gl. 474:
Raunletree, randletree, rantletree . . . a tree chosen with two branches, which are cut short, and left somewhat in the form of the letter Y, set close to or built into the gable of a cottage, to support one end of the roof-tree.(5) Sc. 1815 Scott Guy M. xxvi.:
If ever I see that auld randle-tree of a wife again, I'll gie her something to buy tobacco.Sc. 1822 A. Sutherland Cospatrick I. 162:
Let them gae to the devil, ye auld randle-tree.