▪ I. ˈscoury, a.1 Sc.
Also 6 skowry, 9 scoory.
Shabby, disreputable. Hence ˈscouriness.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxxii. 15 The tod wes nowder lene nor skowry, He wes ane lusty reid haird lowry. 1792 A. Wilson Poems & Lit. Prose (1876) II. 27, I wha stand here, in this bare scoury coat Was ance a packman. 1814 Saxon & Gael III. 58 (Jam.) That little whippy maun be casting up our poortith and your scouriness. a 1894 J. Shaw in R. Wallace Country Schoolmaster (1899) 352 A ‘scoory-looking blade’, a broken-down looking tramp. |
▪ II. † ˈscoury, a.2 Obs. rare—1.
[? f. scour v.1 or v.2 + -y.]
? Scouring, bitter, sharp.
| a 1774 Fergusson Farmer's Ingle Poems (1845) 39 May Scotia's summers aye look gay and green Her yellow hairsts frae scoury blasts decreed. |