ˈwallydrag, ˈwallyˈdraigle Sc.
Also wal(l)idrag, -draggle, -dragle, -tragle, warydraggel, -draggle, etc. (see Eng. Dial. Dict.).
[Cf. drag, draggle vbs.]
1. ‘A feeble, ill-grown person or animal; a worthless, slovenly person, esp. a woman’ (Eng. Dial. Dict.).
| 1508 Kennedy Flyting w. Dunbar 43 Waik walidrag, and werlot of the cairtis. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxvi. 97 Full mony a waistless wallydrag, With wamiss vnweildable, did furth wag, In creische that did incress. a 1508 ― Tua Mariit Wemen 89, I haue ane wallidrag, ane worme, ane auld wobat carle. 1817 Scott Rob Roy xxxiv, That canna be said o' king's soldiers, if they let themselves be beaten wi' a wheen auld carles that are past fighting,..and wives wi' their rocks and distaffs, the very wally-draigles o' the country⁓side. 1818 ― Hrt. Midl. xviii, We think mair about the warst wally-draigle in our ain byre, than about the blessing which the angel of the covenant gave to the Patriarch. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb (1873) 142 Yon bit pernicketty wallydraggle! He'll dee some service, or than no. |
2. (See quot. 1808.)
| 1808 Jamieson, Wallidrag... It appears primarily to signify the youngest of a family, who is often the feeblest. It is sometimes used to denote the youngest bird in a nest. 1826 Galt Last of Lairds xxxvii, It's just like a cuckoo dabbing a wallydraigle out o' the nest. |