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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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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.