Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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SPRAT, n. Also spratt and met. form spart (Sc. 1887 Jam.). Cf. Spret, n.¹, Sprot, n.¹, [sprat]

1. A coarse, reedy grass or rush growing on marshy ground and sometimes used in rope-making and stack-thatching, Juncus articulatus (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Sc. 1886 B. & H. Plant Names 448; Fif., Lth. 1926 Wilson Cent. Scot. 267; Bwk. 1942 Wettstein; Slg., Bwk. 1971).Abd. 1746 Monymusk Papers (S.H.S.) 173:
Grass and sprats cut in many places.Sc. 1776 Kames Gentleman Farmer 172:
A sprat is not an evergreen for it dies away in winter.Gall. 1784 A. Wight Present State Husbandry III. 96:
A coarse rushy grass, commonly called sprat in this part of the country.Ags. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ V. 358:
Producing bushes, spratt, and bent.Slk. 1798 R. Douglas Agric. Slk. 245:
To give all the houses a new covering of rushes or sprats every year.Bwk. 1853 G. Johnston Botany E. Borders 199:
There is not much danger of lairing where Sprats grow abundantly.

Derivs. ¶(1) spratly, adj., rush-like, rushy, poss. a misprint for (2); (2) spratty, adj., (i) id.; (ii) producing rushes, abounding in rushes.(1) Slk. 1894 J. Russell Yarrow 75:
The grass is long, coarse, and spratly.(2) (i) Slk. 1794 T. Johnston Agric. Slk. 13:
Where the soil is wet and spongy, the grass is long, coarse, and spratty.(ii) Sc. 1808 Edb. Encycl. I. 253:
A trial was made on a piece of exceeding stiff spratty lee.

2. The coarse outer bark of flax found fragmented in newly woven linen when badly scratched.Sc. 1756 F. Home Bleaching 28. 211:
When the cloth has an equal colour, and is mostly freed from the sprat, or outer bark of the lint, it is then thought fit for souring. . . . Lime is by no means fit for discharging the oil in the cloth, but for cleaning it of the dead part, commonly called sprat.