▪ I. lowrie Sc.
(ˈlaʊrɪ)
Also 6 lawrie, loury, 6–8 lowry.
[Short for laurence1.]
1. The fox; used as a quasi-proper name.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxxii. 16 The tod..wes ane lusty reid haird lowry. 1728 Ramsay Fox & Rat 27 The Monarch pleas'd with Lowry, wha durst gloom? 1835 Laird of Logan (1841) 163 A' my customers hae been worrying at me like as many jowlers in the neck o' poor tod lowrie. 1885 ‘S. Mucklebackit’ Rhymes 91 As sheep when lowrie tod they see, Man, wife, and wean, in panic flee! |
2. A crafty person; a ‘fox’; a hypocrite.
| 1567 Gude & Godlie Ball. (S.T.S.) 209 Had not that blissit bairne bene borne,..Lowreis, zour lyues had been forlorne. 1571 Satir. Poems Reform. xxix. 21 Ȝitt I beleieff ols mony myndis thochte, ha, loury, ha, ha! 1583 Leg. Bp. St. Androis 55 Men heiring tell how Lowrie landit, The congregatione him commandit To serve a kirk and keip a cure. |
▪ II. lowrie
var. laury Obs.; Australian var. lory.