dacker, daiker, v. Sc. and north. dial.
(ˈdækə(r), ˈdeɪkər)
Also daker.
[app., in sense 1, the same as MFlem. daeckeren ‘volitare, motari, mobilitari; et vibrare, coruscare’ (Kilian, 1599). But sense 7 is not clearly connected with the others, and may be a separate word.]
I. 1. intr. To shake to and fro, waver, totter, stagger. Eng. dial.
| 1668 Skinner Etym. (1671), Dacker, vox in argo Lincoln. usitata: significat autem Vacillare, Nutare. 1674 Ray N.C. Words 13 Dacker, to waver, stagger or totter, a word used in Lincolnshire. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Daikering..also quavering with the limbs; ‘a daikering sort of a body’, a paralysed person. 1877–89 N.W. Linc. Gloss. (ed. 2), Dacker, to waver, to shake fitfully..‘I could see the chimla dacker ivry gust that came’. |
2. To walk totteringly as from feebleness or infirmity; to toddle; to go about slowly, idly or carelessly; to saunter, dander.
| 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxiii, Gin ye'll..just daiker up the gate with this Sassenach. ― Hrt. Midl. viii, Wha wad hae thought o' his daikering out this length? 1825 Jamieson, Dacker, daiker..(7) To go about in a feeble or infirm state. Ettrick Forest. 1851 Cumbrld. Gloss., Dakerin, walking carelessly. |
3. To work in an irregular or pottering way.
| 1703 Thoresby Let. to Ray (E.D.S.), Daker, to work for hire after the common days work is over, at 2d. an hour. 1808 Jamieson, Dacker, daker, daiker..3. To toil as in job work, to labour..5. To be engaged about any piece of work in which one does not make great exertion; to be slightly employed. |
4. fig. To remain or hang on in a state of irresolution; to vacillate, equivocate, waver; be irregular in one's ways. Also, to have relapses in sickness.
| 1818 Scott Rob Roy vi, Sae I e'en daiker on with the family frae year's end to year's end. 1877 in N.W. Linc. Gloss., ‘I knew he was liein', he dacker'd..in his talk.’ |
5. To truck, to traffic (Lothian).
‘It properly signifies to deal in a piddling and loose sort of way; as allied in sense to E. higgle’ (Jamieson).
6. To have dealings, engage, grapple with.
| 1785 Poems Buchan Dialect 10 (Jam.), I dacker'd wi' him by mysel'. 1882 in Edwards Mod. Sc. Poets Ser. iv. 193 'Twere well wi folk they oft would think Afore they daiker long wi drink. |
II. 7. To search (intr. and trans.).
| 1634 Burgh Rec. in Cramond Ann. Banff. (1893) II. 251 The bailyie, haiffing causit searche, seik, and dacker the duelling housis. 1717 Kirk Session Rec. in Gordon Chron. Keith (1880) 90 Warrant for dackering for the said meal. 1768 Ross Helenore 91 (Jam.) To dacker for her as for robbed gear. |