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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SLOCK, n.² Also sloch; slooch (see 2.(1)). [slok, slox]

1. A hollow between hills, a defile or pass, a hollow road (Cai., Inv., Mry. 1970). Freq. in place-names.Abd. 1845 Stat. Acc.² XII. 536:
There is, in the slocks of Glencarvy, an old eyrie.Kcd. 1893 C. A. Mollyson Fordoun 270:
The “sloch” as the road leading up to the kirk is called.Kcb. 1893 Crockett Raiders xxv.:
That great hollow-throated pass . . . the grim name of the Wolf's Slock.ne.Sc. 1929 Abd. Book-Lover VI. 65:
We've pu'ed heather on the Breagach, an' averins by the Slocks.

Hence applied to a narrow opening or doorway in a building, a close-mouth.Ayr. 1945 B. Fergusson Lowland Soldier 21:
A sodger laddie that stands and daffs At the slock of a clarty close.

2. (1) A creek or gully in the sea, a long deep inlet between rocks often revealed at low tide (Kcd. 1911; Ags. 1960).Gall. 1931 H. Maxwell Place-Names 247:
Slock . . . The word has been taken into Lowland Scots and is commonly applied to gullies on the coast.Abd. 1968 Abd. Press & Jnl. (9 Feb.):
Catching “rothicks” i' the “sloochs.”

(2) With def. art.: a sobriquet for the fishing-village of Portessie in Banffshire, which is built on such a creek, Sloch Hythe. Hence Sloch(i)er, n., an inhabitant of Portessie (Bnff. 1970, Slocher).Bnff. 1888 Sc. N. & Q. II. 44:
“The dinskinned Culleners, The knock-kneed Portknockiers, The flukie-mou'd Slochiers.”Bnff. 1958 Bulletin (3 April):
Further north, however, the populace take even less to do with phonetics, for Portessie is pronounced “The Sloch.”