▪ I. scrae, n.1 Sc.
(skre)
Also scray, skrae.
[? Subst. use of scrae a.]
1. A diminutive or skinny person.
| 1803 Jamieson in Scott Minstrelsy III. 363 [To a crying child], Lie still, ye skrae. 1823 Lockhart Reg. Dalton vii. ii. III. 119 Yon poor shaughlin' in-kneed bit scray of a thing! 1819 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 136 Lean skraes o' men. |
2. ‘A shrivelled old shoe’ (Jam.).
| 1721 Kelly Sc. Prov. 251 Mickle Sorrow comes to the Screa, e'er the Heat come to the Tea [= toe]. Spoken when one holds his Shoe to the Fire to warm his Foot. |
▪ II. scrae, n.2 Orkney and Shetland.
(skreɪ)
[a. ON. skreið dried fish.]
Dried fish. Also scrae-fish.
| 1806 P. Neill Tour Orkney & Shetl. 78 The gables of the cottages here, were..hung round with hundreds of small coalfish,..strung upon spits, and exposed to dry, without salt. The fishes dried in this manner are called scrae-fish. |
▪ III. scrae, a. Sc.
(skre)
Also skrae.
[? a. LG. schrae, schra, schrade, etc. (see Grimm s.v. schrade) lean, dried up, shrivelled.]
Thin, lean. Also Comb. scrae-shanked a.
| 1822 Hogg Three Perils of Man II. vii. 232 The skrae-shankit Laidlaws. 1898 E. W. Hamilton Mawkin of the Flow xviii. 241 This skrae-shankit laddie. |
▪ IV. scrae
var. scree Sc. and north., debris of rock.