▪ I. hidlings, adv. and n. Sc. and north. dial.
Also erron. -lands = -lins.
[f. hid ppl. a. + -ling, -lings, adverbial formative: cf. backling, -s, etc.]
A. adv. In hidden wise, secretly.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 280 He mei hine unmunlunge aworpen [v.r. hodlinges casten]. 1808–18 in Jamieson. a 1851 J. Baillie (Ogilvie), An' she's to come to you here, hidlings, as it war. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Hidlands, secretly. |
b. More usually in hidlings (as if n.): in secret, secretly.
| 1422 tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. (E.E.T.S.) 171 The hardy or the manfull in hidlynges he nendeynyth [= n'endeynyth] not any-thynge to do. 1563 Winȝet Wks. (1890) II. 33 It is a grete temptatioun..the samin man..suld inbring in hidlingis pestilent errouris. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. ii. i, And skulk in hidlings on the hether braes. 1801 in Ferguson & Nanson Munic. Rec. Carlisle (1887) 259 To sell in open market, or in hidlings. 1887 Hall Caine Deemster xxiii. 146 It's been a quarrel and maybe a fight.. and he's been in hidlins. |
B. app. taken as n. pl. a. Hiding-places, secret places. b. Secret or clandestine operations.
| 1597 Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 764 Thair is no boundis, bot I haif bene, Nor hidlingis fra me hid. 1813 W. Beattie Tales 36 (Jam.) The hills look white, the woods look blue, Nae hiddlins for a hungry ewe, They're sae beset wi' drift. 1823 E. Logan St. Johnstoun III. 19 (Jam.), I dinna ken what a' this hidlings is about. 1846–60 R. E. Egerton-Warburton Hunt. Songs (1883) lix. xiv. 166 One was shunted into hidlands, T'other laid upon the shelf. |
▪ II. hidlings, a. Sc. and north. dial.
Also 9 hiddlin'.
[The same word as prec. used as adj., and then often with final -s dropped: cf. darkling.]
Hidden, secret, underhand, clandestine.
| a 1810 Tannahill Poems (1846) 75 He ne'er kept up a hidlins plack, To spend ahint a comrade's back. 1818 S. E. Ferrier Marriage II. 127, I wud nae count myself married i' the hiddlins way they gang aboot it noo. 1824 ― Inher. lxxxiv, Carrying on this hiddlin' coortship. 1887 J. Service Life Dr. Duguid v. 31 His hiddlin' kind of ways. |