▪ I. wheen, a. and n. Sc. and north. dial.
(hwiːn)
Forms: 4–5 quheine, qwheyn(e, 4–6 quheyn(e, -en(e, (5 qwhayne, 7 whein, wheene, 9 whean), 7–9 whin, 7– wheen.
[Represents OE. hwéne (hwœ́ne, hwǽne) in some degree, somewhat, instrumental case of hwón whon = (a) few, the meanings of which it took over in ME.]
1. Few, not many.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 244 Thocht thai war qwheyn, thai war worthy. Ibid. xi. 605 Quhenar be full fer war thai Than thair fayis. c 1400 Sc. Trojan War (Horstm.) ii. 2283 Þe quheyne folk þat ware Liffand. 1513 Douglas æneis i. iii. 43 On the huge deip quhen salaris did appear. 1557 Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 303 Within thir quheyne last immediat yeiris. 1894 Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., Aa hevn't seen him these wheen days. |
| absol. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xl. (Ninian) 921 Þe best part of þaim ves slane, &..quheine eschapit. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. iv. vii. 740 Qwhayne had toyme þar aynde to draw. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xiv. 14 So quhene the Psalme and Testament to reid Within this land was nevir hard nor sene. |
2. a wheen (of), a few: in recent use = a ‘good few’, a fair number.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce viii. 368 The king..With a quheyn [Edin. MS. quhone] lik poueralȝe, Vencust him vith a gret menȝe. 1513 Douglas æneis iii. vi. 45 Of mony wordis, schortlie, a quhene sall I Declair. 1680 in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. XLV. 237 A wheen of..canny wise professors. Ibid. 241 A whin knaves. 1682 Peden Lord's Trumpet 20 O sirs! Christ had a whein noble worthies in Scotland. 1814 Scott Wav. lxv, What use has my father for a whin bits o' scarted paper? 1816 ― Antiq. xxiv, There will be a wheen idle gowks coming to glower at the hole as lang as it is day⁓light. 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped iii. 23, I wouldnae like the Balfours to be humbled before a wheen Hieland Campbells. 1901 G. Douglas Ho. w. Gr. Shutters 71 ‘Have the carriers a big load?’ ‘Andy has just a wheen parcels, but Elshie's as fu' as he can haud.’ |
3. a wheen as advb. phr.: A little, somewhat.
| 1869 C. Gibbon Robin Gray x, The auld wife's a wheen better. |
▪ II. wheen(e
obs. or dial. ff. queen n.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. v. 4463 Þe qwene [MS. Bowes 136 wheene] of Amazons. |
▪ III. wheen, wheenerd, wheenge
see whine, winnard, whinge.