Glossary Of Scottish Words Used By Robert Burns: B-Words
B-Words
by Robert Burns
- Ba'
- Ball
- Backets
- Ash boards, as pieces of backet for removing ashes.
- Backlins
- Comin', coming back, returning
- Back-yett
- Private gate.
- Baggie
- The belly.
- Baide
- Endured, did stay.
- Bainie
- Having large bones, stout.
- Bairn
- A child.
- Bairntime
- A family of children, a brood.
- Baith
- Both.
- Baiveridge
- Hansel drink.
- Bakes
- Cakes.
- Ballets, ballants
- Ballads
- Ban
- To swear.
- Bane
- Bone.
- Bang
- To beat, to strive, to excel.
- Bannock
- Flat, round, soft cake.
- Bardie
- Diminutive of bard.
- Bare-fit
- Barefooted.
- Barley-bree, Barley-broo
- liquor of barley, malt liquor.
- Barmie
- Of or like barm, yeasty
- Batch
- a crew, a gang.
- Batts
- Botts.
- Bauckie-bird
- The bat.
- Baudrons
- The cat.
- Bauk
- A cross beam.
- Bauld
- Bold.
- Bawk
- A piece of unploughed land among corn.
- Baws'nt
- Having a white stripe down the face.
- Be
- To let be, to give over, to cease.
- Bear
- Barley.
- Bearded-bear
- Barley with its bristly head.
- Beastie
- Diminutive of beast.
- Beas'
- Vermin
- Beck
- Bow
- Beet, Beek
- To add fuel to a fire, to bask.
- Beets
- Boots, nourishes
- Beld
- Bald.
- Belyve
- By and by, presently, quickly
- Ben
- Into the spence, or parlour.
- Benmost-bore
- The remotest hole, the innermost recess.
- Bethankit
- Grace after meat.
- Beuk
- A book
- Bicker
- A kind of wooden dish; a short rapid race.
- Bickering
- Careering, hurrying with quarrelsome intent.
- Bide
- Stand
- Bie, or Bield
- Shelter, a sheltered place, the sunny nook of a wood.
- Bien
- Wealthy, plentiful
- Big, Biggit
- To build, built
- B'ggin'
- Building, a house
- Bill'
- The bull.
- Billie
- A brother, a young fellow, a companion
- Bings
- A heap of grain, potatoes, etc.
- Birdie-cocks
- Young cocks, still belonging to the brood.
- Birk
- Birch.
- Birkie
- A clever, a forward, conceited fellow.
- Birken-shaw
- Birchen-wood shaw, a small wood.
- Birnie
- Birnie ground is where thick heath has been burnt, leaving the birns, or unconsumed stalks, standing up sharp and stubbley.
- Birring
- The noise of partridges when they rise.
- Birses
- Bristles.
- Bit
- Crisis, nick of time, place.
- Bizz
- A bustle, to buzz.
- Black's the grun'
- As black as the ground.
- Blastie
- A shrivelled dwarf, a term of contempt, full of mischief.
- Blastit
- Blasted.
- Blate
- Bashful, sheepish.
- Blather
- Bladder.
- Blaud
- A flat piece of anything, to slap.
- Blaudin shower
- A heavy driving rain. A blauding signifies a beating.
- Blaw
- To blow, to boast, "blaw i' my lug", to flatter
- Bleerit
- Bedimmed, eyes hurt with weeping.
- Bleer't and blin'
- Bleered and blind.
- Bleer my een
- Dim my eyes.
- Bleezing, bleeze
- Blazing, flame.
- Blellum
- Idle talking fellow.
- Blether, bleth'rin
- To talk idly; talking idly.
- Blink
- A little while, a smiling look, to look kindly, to shine by fits.
- Blinker
- A term of contempt; it means, too, a lively engaging girl.
- Blinkin'
- Smirking, smiling with the eyes, looking lovingly.
- Blirt and blearie
- Outburst of grief, with wet eyes.
- Blue-gown
- One of those beggars who get annually on the king's birthday a blue cloak or gown with a badge.
- Bluid
- Blood.
- Bluntie
- Snivelling.
- Blype
- A shred, a large piece.
- Bobbit
- The obeisance made by a lady.
- Bock, Bocked
- To vomit, to gush intermittently, gushed.
- Bodle
- A copper coin of the value of two pennies Scots, or one-third of an English penny.
- Bogie
- A small morass.
- Bogle
- Spirits, hobgoblins.
- Bonnie or bonny
- Handsome, beautiful.
- Bonnock
- A kind of thick cake of bread, a small jannock or loaf made of oatmeal. See bannock.
- Boord
- A board.
- Boortree
- The shrub elder, planted much of old in hedges of barn-yards and gardens.
- Boost
- Behoved, must needs, wilfulness.
- Bore
- A hole in a wall, a cranny.
- Botch, Blotch
- An angry tumour.
- Bouk, bowk
- Body.
- Bousing
- Drinking, making merry with liquor.
- Bow-hought
- Out-knee'd, crooked at the knee joint, We say bow-beaked of a hawk.
- Bow-kail
- Cabbage.
- Bowt, bowlt
- Bended, crooked.
- Brachens
- Ferns.
- Brae
- A declivity, a precipice, the slope of a hill.
- Bragged
- Challenged
- Braid
- Broad.
- Braik
- An instrument for rough-dressing flax, a kind of harrow.
- Brainge
- To run rashly forward, to churn violently.
- Braing't
- "The horse brainget," plunged and fretted in the harness.
- Brak'
- Broke, became insolvent.
- Branks
- A kind of wooden curb for horses.
- Brankie
- Gaudy.
- Brash
- A sudden illness.
- Brats
- Course clothes, rags, etc.
- Brattle
- A short race, hurry, fury.
- Brattle
- noisy onset.
- Braw
- Fine, handsome.
- Brawlys, or Brawlie
- Very well, finely, heartily, bravely.
- Braxies
- Diseased sheep.
- Breastie
- Diminutive of breast.
- Breastit
- Did spring up or forward; the act of mounting a horse.
- Brechame
- A horse-collar
- Breckan
- Fern.
- Bree, Brie
- Juice, Liquid
- Breef
- An invulnerable or irresistible spell.
- Breeks
- Breeches
- Brent
- Bright, clear.
- Brewin'
- Brewing, gathering.
- Brig
- A bridge.
- Brisket
- The breast, bosom.
- Brither
- A brother.
- Brock
- A badger.
- Brogue
- A hum, a trick.
- Broo
- Broth, liquid, water.
- Broose
- A race at country weddings; he who first reaches the bridegroom's house on returning from church wins the broose.
- Brose
- A kind of thick pottage made by pouring boiling water or broth on oatmeal, which is stirred while the liquor is poured.
- Browst
- Ale, as much malt liquor as is brewed at a time.
- Brugh
- A burgh.
- Bruilzie
- A broil, combustion.
- Brunstane
- Brimstone.
- Brunt
- Did burn, burnt.
- Brust
- To burst, burst.
- Buchan-bullers
- The boiling of the sea among the rocks on the coast of Buchan.
- Buckskin
- An inhabitant of Virginia.
- Buff our beef
- Thrash us soundly, give us a beating behind and before.
- Bught
- A Pea
- Bughtin-time
- The time of collecting the sheep in the pens to be milked.
- Buirdly
- Stout-made, broad built.
- Bum-clock
- The humming beetle, that flies in the summer evenings.
- Bummin'
- Humming as bees, buzzing.
- Bummle, Bummler
- To blunder - a drone, an idle fellow, one whose noise is greater than his work.
- Bunker
- A window seat.
- Burdies
- Diminutive of bird.
- Bure
- Did bear.
- Burn, Burnie
- Water, a rivulet, a small stream, which is heard as it runs.
- Burnewin'
- Burn the wind, a blacksmith. The bellows blow wind into the fire, hence burn the wind.
- Burr-thistle
- The thistle of Scotland.
- Buskie, Buskit, Busks
- Bushy, dressed, dresses
- Buskit-nest
- An ornamented residence
- Busle
- A Bustle, to bustle.
- Buss
- Shelter.
- But, Bot
- Without.
- But and ben
- The country kitchen and parlour.
- By himself
- Lunatic, distracted, beside himself.
- Byke
- A bee-hive; a wild bee-nest.
- Byre
- A cow-house, a sheep pen.
Source:
The Poetical Works Of Robert BurnsCopyright 1910
Ward, Lock, and Co., Ltd