Glossary Of Scottish Words Used By Robert Burns: C-Words

C-Words

by Robert Burns

Ca', ca't
To call, to name, to drive.
Called, driven, calved.
Cadger
A carrier
Cadie, or caddie
A person, a young fellow, a public messenger.
Caff
Chaff.
Caird
A tinker, a maker of horn spoons, and teller of fortunes.
Cairn
A loose heap of stones, a rustic monument.
Calf-ward
A small enclosure for calves.
Calimanco
A certain kind of cotton cloth worn by ladies.
Callan
A boy.
Caller
Fresh, sound, refreshing.
Callet
A loose woman, a follower of a camp.
Cannie
Gentle, mild, dexterous.
Cannilie
Dexterously, gently.
Cantie, or canty
Cheerful, merry.
Cantraip
A charm, a spell.
Cap-stane
Cope-stone, topmost stone of the building.
Car
A rustic cart with or without wheels.
Careenin'
Moving cheerfully.
Carl, carle
An old man.
Carl-hemp
The male stalk of hemp, easily known by its superior strength and stature, and being without seed.
Carlin
A stout old woman.
Cartes
Cards.
Castock
The stalk of a cabbage.
Caudron
A cauldron.
Cauk and keel
Chalk and red clay.
Cauld
Cold.
Caup
A wooden drinking vessel, a cup.
Cavie
A hen-coop.
Cesses
Taxes.
Chanter
A part of the bagpipe, the drone.
Chap
A person, a fellow.
Chaup
A stroke, a blow.
Cheek for chow
Close and united, brotherly, side by side.
Cheekit
Cheeked.
Cheep
A chirp, to chirp.
Chiel, or cheal
A young fellow.
Chimla, or chimlie
A fire-grate, fire-place.
Chimla-lug
The fire-side.
Chirps
Cries of a young bird.
Chittering
Shivering, trembling.
Chockin'
Choking.
Chow
To chew, a quid of tobacco.
Chuckie
A brood hen.
Chuffle
Fat-faced.
Clachan
A small village about a church, a hamlet.
Claise, or claes
Clothes.
Claith, claithing
Cloth, clothing.
Clapper-claps
The clapper of a mill; it is now silenced.
Clap-clack
Clapper of a mill.
Clartie
Dirty, filthy.
Clarkit
Wrote.
Clash
An idle tale, the story of the day.
Clatter
To tell idle stories, an idle story.
Claught
Snatched at, laid hold of.
Claughtin't
Gathering it.
Claut, clauted
To clean, to scrape, scraped.
Clavers
Idle stories.
Clavers and havers
Agreeable nonsense, to talk foolishly.
Claw
To scratch
Cleckin
A brood of chickens, or ducks.
Cleed, cleads
To clothe, clothes.
Cleek, cleckit
Hook, snatch; having caught.
Clegs
The gad-flies.
Clinkin'
Jerking, clinking down, sitting down hastily.
Clinkum-bell
The church bell; he who rings it; a sort of beadle.
Clips
Wool-shears.
Clishmaclaver
Idle conversation.
Clock, clocking
To hatch, a beetle; hatching.
Cloot
The hoof of a cow, sheep, etc.
Clootie
A familiar name of the Devil.
Clour
A bump, or swelling, after a blow.
Cloutin'
Repairing with cloth.
Cluds
Clouds.
Clunk
The sound in setting down an empty bottle.
Coaxin'
Wheedling.
Coble
A fishing-boat.
Cockernony
A lock of hair tied up on a girl's head, a cap.
Cod
A pillow.
Coft
Bought.
Cog, coggie
A wooden dish.
Coila
From Kyle, a district in Ayrshire, so-called, saith tradition, from Coil, or Coilus, a Pictish Monarch.
Collie
A general, and sometimes a particular name for country curs.
Collie-shangie
A quarrel among dogs, an Irish row.
Commaun
Command.
Convoyed
Accompanied lovingly.
Cood
The cud.
Coof
A blockhead, a ninny.
Cookit
Appeared and disappeared by fits.
Cool'd in her linens
Cool'd in her death-shift.
Cooser, Coosser
A stallion.
Coost
Did cast.
Coot
The ancle; a species of water-fowl.
Coothie
Agreeable.
Cootie
A wooden kitchen dish, rough-legged; also those fowls whose legs are clad with feathers are said to be cootie.
Corbies
A species or the crow, blood crows.
Core
Corps, party, clan.
Corn't
Fed with oats.
Cotter
The inhabitant of a cot-house, or cottage.
Couthie
Kind, loving.
Cove
A cave.
Cowe
To terrify, to keep under, to lop; a fright, a branch of furze, broom, etc.
Cowp
To barter, to tumble over.
Cowp the cran
To tumble a full bucket of basket.
Cowpit
Tumbled.
Cowrin'
Cowering.
Cowte
A colt.
Cozie, cozily
Snug, snugly.
Crabbit
Crabbed, fretful.
Crack, crackin'
Conversation, to converse, to boast; conversing.
Craft, or croft
A field near a house, in old husbandry.
Craig, craigie
Neck.
Craiks
Cries or calls incessantly, a species of bird, the corn-rail.
Crambo-clink, or cramble-jingle
Rhymes, doggerel verses.
Crank
The noise of an ungreased wheel -- metaphorically, inharmonious verse.
Crankous
Fretful, captious.
Cranreuch
The hoar-frost, called in Nithsdale frost-rhyne.
Crap
A crop, to crop.
Craw
A crow of a cock, a rook.
Creel
A basket, to have one's wits in a creel, to be craz'd, to be fascinated.
Creeshie
Greasy.
Creuks
A disease of horses.
Crocks
Stray sheep, old ewes.
Crood, or croud
To coo as a dove.
Croon, crooning
A hollow and continued moan; to make a noise like the continued roar of a bull; to hum a tune; humming.
Crouchie
Crook-backed.
Crouse
Cheerful, courageous.
Crously
Cheerfully, courageously.
Crowdie
A composition of oatmeal, boiled water, and butter; sometimes made from the broth of beef, mutton, etc.
Crowdie time
Breakfast time.
Crowlin'
Crawling, a deformed creeping thing.
Crummie's nicks
Marks on the horns of a cow.
Crummock, crummet
A cow with crooked horns.
Crump, crumpin'
Hard and brittle, spoken of bread; frozen snow, yielding to the foot.
Crunt
A blow on the head with a cudgel.
Cuddle
To clasp and caress.
Cuif
A blockhead, a ninny.
Cummock
A short staff with a crooked head.
Cummock driddle
Walk slowly, leaning on a staff with a crooked head.
Curch
A covering for the head, a kerchief.
Curchie
A curtsey, female obeisance.
Curler
A player at a game on the ice, practised in Scotland, called curling.
Curlie
Curled, whose hair falls naturally in ringlets.
Curling
A well-known game on the ice.
Curmurring
Murmuring, a slight rumbling nose.
Curpin
The crupper, the rump.
Curple
The rear.
Cushat
The dove, or wood-pigeon.
Cutty
Short, a spoon broken in the middle.
Cutty stool, or creepie chair
The seat of shame, stool of repentance.

Source:

The Poetical Works Of Robert Burns
Copyright 1910
Ward, Lock, and Co., Ltd