tirr, v. Sc. and n. dial.
(tɪr, tɜːr)
Also 6–7 tyr, tyrr, 6–9 tir, 7 tirre, 9 terr.
[app. a reduced form of tirve v.1 in same sense (see quot. 1553 in 1 b), and cf. Sc. ser' for serve, turris for turves.]
1. trans. To strip or tear off (a covering, esp. the thatch, slates, or roofing of a house).
| 1571–5 Diurnal Occurr. (Bann. Cl.) 219 Ane commandement gevin..to tir and tak doun all the tymmer werk of all houssis in Leith Wynd and Sanctmarie Wynd. 1584 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 681 [He] tirrit and reft doun the faill and thak of his barnis. 1635 Dickson Pract. Wks. (1845) I. 83 He shall tirr the visorne off your faces. 1670 R. Law Mem. (1817) 33 It tirred the sclates off it. 1777 in Cramond Ann. Banff (1893) II. 97 There is no mending of the slating without tirring the sclates. 1795 A. Wilson Spouter 581 Mony a fierce storm had tirred the thack. |
2. To strip (a person) naked; to uncover, unroof (a house, etc.). Also fig.
| 1553 Douglas's æneis ix. viii. 78 In quhat land lyis thou manglit and schent, Thy fare body and membris tyrryt [ed. Small tyrvit] and rent? 1572–5 Diurnal Occurr. (Bann. Cl.) 307 The laird of Collingtonis hous in Forrestaris Wynd wes half tirrit. 1578–9 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 83 Als meikle to say ‘Tyr the kirk and theik the queir’. 1590 Reg. Privy Council Scot. IV. 492 Eftir thay wer tirrit to thair sarkis. 1644 Ibid. VIII. 101 They causit thair officers and hangman tirre us mother naked. a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1850) I. 70 Quhilk the said James espying, fallis to shortlie and tirris the houss. Ibid. (1851) II. 407 Thir cruell Irishis, seing a man weill cled, wold first tyr him and saif the clothis onspoyllit, syne kill the man. 1763 in Lauder & Lauderd. (1902) 86 The west side of the Manse must be tirred and sclated anew. 1808 Jamieson s.v., Tir one to the skin, i.e. strip him naked. 1894 P. H. Hunter J. Inwick xi. (1900) 153 A man..that cares na wha be tirred gin he be theekit. 1901 Dundee Advert. 11 Feb. 6 In a minute or two the whole of the north side of the roof was completely tirred. |
b. intr. (for refl.) To take off one's clothes; to strip, undress.
| 1787 W. Taylor Scots Poems 67 Hame I gaed..An' than I tirr'd, an' to my bed. 1825 Jamieson, Tirr,..to undress, to pull off one's clothes. 1891 A. Matthews Poems & Songs 52, I quickly tirr'd doon to the sark. |
3. trans. To bare (land) of its surface covering; to pare off (the turf or surface soil) from land; to lay bare (the stone in a quarry) by removing the superincumbent soil and clay. With the thing laid bare, or the covering, as object. Also absol.
| c 1567 Survey Shilbottle in New County Hist. Northumbld. (1899) V. 425 The ground also, by reason of castyng so great numbre of turves, [is] so tyrred and maide baire, that of a greate parte therof groweth no grasse. 1593 Aberdeen Regr. (1848) II. 85 The saidis Inchis ar sa flayne and tirrit, that..thair is na faill to be had thairin. 1808 Jamieson, Tirr,..to pare off the sward by means of a spade..before casting peats. 1867 D. D. Black Hist. Brechin ii. 18 The earth was tirred from the garden on the top of the bank. 1899 J. B. Montgomerie-Fleming Notes on Jamieson 169 Tirr,..to remove the soil and sub-soil from above a bed of sand⁓stone in a quarry. |
Hence tirr n., the soil or sub-soil removed from the bed of a quarry (Montgomerie-Fleming Notes on Jamieson, 1899); ˈtirring vbl. n., the stripping off of the incumbent soil, etc.
| 1794 Statist. Acc. Scot. XIII. 201 These quarries require very little tirring. 1902 Daily Record & Mail 11 Sept. 3 A couple of men had agreed to do some quarry tirring... The tirr suddenly collapsed and a man..was killed. |