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 Burns
Copyright 1910
Ward, Lock, and Co., Ltd