laigh, a., adv., and n. Sc.
(lɛːx)
Also 4–9 laich(e, 5 laych, 4 lawch, 5 lauch.
[See low a.]
A. adj. = low a. in various senses: Near the ground, not elevated; † inferior in rank or quality; not loud.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce xiii. 651 And it, that wondir lawch wer ere, Mon lowp on loft in the contrere. c 1375 Sc. Troy-bk. ii. 1719 Now as hillis hie yt schauris Now set laich with ane noþir skift. c 1470 Henry Wallace x. 622 The lauch way till Enrawyn thai ryd. 1581 Satir. Poems Reform. xliv. 119 Go hence then, lounis! the laich vay in Abyssis. 1582–8 Hist. Jas. VI (1804) 75 Finding the lentell stane of the bak zet to be sumquhat laiche. 1693 Scot. Presbyt. Eloq. (1738) 124 Christ..rode upon an Ass, which is a Laigh Beast. 1728 Ramsay Last Sp. Miser xxv, Sic are but very laigh concerns, Compar'd with thee. 1753 Scots Mag. Apr. 162/2 The commissioners..shall meet in the laigh council-house, Edinburgh. 1816 Scott Antiq. i, A sharp-looking old dame..who inhabited a ‘laigh shop’, anglicè, a cellar. 1881 Stevenson Thrawn Janet Wks. 1895 III. 253 It's a lang, laigh, mirk chalmer. Ibid. 257 When a' of a sudden he heard a laigh, uncanny steer upstairs. 1894 Crockett Lilac Sunbonnet 74 One of the farms at the ‘laigh’ end of the parish. |
B. adv. In a low position; to a low point; in a low tone.
| 1583 Satir. Poems Reform. xlv. 349 Laich in a lymbus, whair they lay. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. vii. 2 Quhen he saw the vertues of the Bruse..and how laich [he] was brocht. 1792 Burns Bessy & Spinnin Wheel i, I'll set me down and sing and spin, While laigh descends the simmer sun. 1868 G. Macdonald R. Falconer I. 18 Speyk laicher, man; she'll maybe hear ye. 1893 Stevenson Catriona 20 But—laigh in your ear, man—I'm maybe no very keen on the other side. |
C. n. a. A hollow. b. A low-lying ground.
| 1{ddd} Chart. Aberbrothok (Advoc. Libr. MS.) 79 Passand eist downwart to the greyn laigh to Gemylis myr. 1768 Ross Helenore (1789) 47 A burn ran in the laigh, ayont there lay As many feeding on the other brae. 1798 Statist. Acc. Scot. XX. 232 The whole laigh of Moray had been covered with the sea in the year 1010. 1811 G. S. Keith Agric. Surv. Aberd. 172 Low wet lands, called laighs. |