▪ I. tocher, n. Sc. and north. dial.
(ˈtoxər)
Forms: 5–6 toquhir, -yr, 6 toquher, -eir, touchquhare, touchar, -er, towcher, (towher), tochar, 6–7 tochir, 7 tochare, tougher, 7–9 dial. towgher (9 togher), 6– tocher.
[a. Irish and OGael. tochar (mod.Gael. tochradh) assigned portion, dowry, in OIr. assignment, f. tochuirim I put to, I assign, f. cuirim I put.]
The marriage portion which a wife brings to her husband; dowry, dot.
| 1496 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 307 Giffen to Robert Lile, in his toquhyr of the Mertymes terme bipast j{supc} markis. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) II. 194 And [Rolland] in the name of Touchquhare, sall have all thay landis. 1546 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 43 The said Lord Governour sall gif in tocher with his said dochter to the said Eirle and his airis the soume of twa thousand, thre hundreith, and thrette thre pundis vi s viii d. 1568 Durham Depos. (Surtees) 86 The parties went..to hir frends, to demand towher. 1569 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) II. 314 note, He shall haue 1001..as towcher and mariadge money, whiche I gaue him with my dowghter Anne. c 1614 Sir W. Mure Dido & æneas ii. 192 Now Dido may be tyed to Trojane mate, And thow receave, in tougher, Carthage great. 1674 Ray N.C. Words 50 A Towgher, a Dower or Dowry. Dial. Cumb. 1692 Sc. Presbyter. Eloquence (1738) 149 Ye ken well enough..that Lads do not marry Lasses now, except they have a Tocher. 1796 Burns Hey for a Lass i, Then hey, for a lass wi' a tocher; the nice yellow guineas for me. 1894 Crockett Raiders 22 He married a lass from the hills who brought him no tocher, but..a strong dower of sense and good health. |
b. attrib. and Comb., as tocher-fee, tocher-gear; tocher-band, a marriage settlement; tocher-good, property given as tocher or dower.
| 1792 Burns Gallant Weaver iii, My daddie sign'd my *tocher-band, To gie the lad that has the land. |
| 17.. in Kinloch Anc. Sc. Ballads (1827) 85 ‘A clerk! a clerk!’ the king cried, ‘To sign her *tocher-fee’. |
| 18.. Cath. Jaffery iv. in Child Ballads vii. (1890) 225/1 For *tocher-gear he did not stand. |
| 1538 Aberdeen Regr. (1844) I. 158 To pay me the soume of thretty poundis..and that in *tochir gud for the mareage. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. i. 25 The mariage being dissolved, the tocher-gude returnes and perteins to the wyfe. 1822 Scott Pirate v, Though I fall heir to her tocher-good, I am sorry for it. |
▪ II. tocher, v. Sc. and north. dial.
(ˈtoxər)
[f. prec.]
trans. To furnish with a tocher; to dower.
| a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 125 He..tocharit hir with the Lordschipe of Ballvenie. 1781 Burns Tarbolton Lasses ii, Well he can spare't, Braid Money to tocher them a', man. 1829 Hogg Sheph. Cal. I. x. 304 It wad tocher a' our bonny lasses. 1878 Cumberld. Gloss. s.v. Tokker, Togher, ‘He tokker't his dowter wi' twenty pund’. |
Hence tochered (ˈtoxəd) ppl. a. (qualified by adverbs, as well-tochered).
| 1728 Ramsay Give me a Lass with a Lump of Land iii, Well tocher'd lasses or joynter'd widows. 1816 Scott Antiq. xii, Ye are a bonny young leddy, and a gude ane, and maybe a weel-tochered ane. 1881 Blackw. Mag. Apr. 524 The fairly tochered spinster. |