▪ I. sheugh, n. Sc. and north.
(ʃux)
Forms: α. 6 sewch, seuche, 6–7, 9 seuch, 8– seugh; β. 7 shouch, 8–9 shough, (9 shooch, shaugh, shuch, shugh, see Eng. Dial. Dict.), 9 sheuch, 8– sheugh.
[Northern variant of sough n.2]
1. A furrow, trench, ditch, drain, etc.
| α 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. iii. iv, Ane terribill sewch birnand in flammis reid,..All full of brintstane, pick, and bulling leid. 1513 ― æneis v. xii. 168 Eneas with a pleuch The cetie circulit, and merkit be a seuch. 1520 Nisbet Matt. xv. 14 Gif a blindman leid a blindman, bathe falle dovn into the seucht. 16.. N. Burne Leader-Haughs x. in Ramsay Tea-Table Misc. (1762) II. 181 O'er dub and dyke, o'er seugh and syke. 1818 Hogg Brownie II. Woolgatherer 147 A deep dry seuch at the back of the garden. 1829 Brockett N.C. Gloss. (ed. 2), Seugh, a wet ditch;..any watery or boggy place—a sough. |
| β 1665 J. Fraser Chron. Frasers (S.H.S.) 164 Riding down the narrow shouch of Corbet Bray. a 1779 D. Graham Jockey & Maggy's Crtshp. iii. Writ. 1883 II. 24 West the hags, an' o'er by Whitehill shough. 1786 Burns Twa Dogs 30 He was a gash an' faithfu' tyke, As ever lap a sheugh or dyke. 1816 Scott Antiq. xliv, And a' the bonny engines, and wheels, and the coves, and sheughs, doun at Glenwithershins yonder, what's to come o' them? 1830 W. Carleton Traits Ir. Peas. (1843) I. 62 Sometimes one in crossing a stile or ditch would drop into the shough. 1894 T. Watson Kirkintilloch 199 Huge open gutters or ‘sheuchs’ on either side of the street, received all the sewage. |
2. A furrow made for the temporary reception of plants: see sheugh v. 2.
| 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm I. 373 The plants are taken from the sheughs when wanted. |
▪ II. sheugh, v. Sc. and north.
(ʃux)
Forms: α. seuch, sewch (in pr. pple. sewchquhand), 7 seugh; β. 8–9 shugh, 9 shough, 9– sheuch, 8– sheugh.
[f. sheugh n.]
1. trans. To plough, make furrows in (also fig.); to dig up; (see also quot. 1882).
| 1513 Douglas æneis v. iii. 76 Thai seuch the fludis. Ibid. 102 Now glyde thai baith togiddir furth in front, Sewchquhand salt fame with thair lang kelis blont. 1606 W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall (1833) 31 With shod-shooles to seugh up the sanctuary ground. a 1878 H. Ainslie Pilgr. Land Burns, etc. (1892) 334 They're..sheughin' hill an' howe. 1882 Jamieson, To Sheuch, Shugh, to make a ditch or drain; also, to work in a ditch or peat-pit, as to sheugh peats, i.e., to cut them from the sheuch or pit, West of S[cotland]. |
2. To lay plants temporarily in the earth in order to keep them fresh; also to sheugh in.
| 17.. Jacobite Song, Wee German Lairdie i, He was delving in his kail-yairdie: Sheughing kail an' laying leeks. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 703 In the nurseries, we have great experience of lifting and shoughing immense quantities of deciduous plants. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm I. 373 The bundles..should be immediately loosened out on their arrival from the nursery, and sheughed in, that is, spread out upright in trenches..and dry earth well heaped against them. 1894 Northumbld. Gloss., Sheugh, to ‘lay’..trees or plants temporarily in a hastily dug hole. |
b. transf. To cover slightly, bury.
| 1742 R. Forbes Ajax (1755) 3 Ajax..fase targe was shught In seven fald o' hide. 1832–53 D. Webster in Whistle-Binkie Ser. ii. 101 The bodies in Mauchlin Wish Meg in her kist, an' as deep sheugh'd as Lauchlan. a 1880 in Sir W. Fraser Red. Bk. Menteith I. 403 His followers daurna tak his body so far east as Dundurn..so they just shoughed it at the point of Coilmore, whence it was exhumed and placed afterwards in the old chapel. |