nirln.
/nəːl/, U.S. /nərl/, Scottish English /nɪrl/, Irish English /nəːrl/ Scottish, Irish English (northern), and English regional (northern).† 2. A small or puny person. Obsolete.
1. A small projection, piece or lump of something; a knot, knob, nodule, etc. Sc. National Dict. s.v. records this sense as still in use in Ulster in 1964.
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1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Nirl, 1. A crumb, a small portion of any thing... 2. A small knot.
1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) Nirl, a knott.
1869 J. C. Atkinson Peacock's Gloss. Dial. Hundred of Lonsdale Nirl, a knot.
1876 J. Nicholson Kilwuddie (ed. 3) 119 Ye micht bring something hame to me, wer't but a nirl o' cake.
1916 T. W. Paterson Wyse-sayin's xvii. i Better wi' a nirl o' an auld bannock..Than a hale hoosefu' o' galraivagin.
1975 J. Y. Mather & H. H. Speitel Ling. Atlas Scotl. I. 195 Crumbs, [Lanarkshire] nirrels.
1975 J. Y. Mather & H. H. Speitel Ling. Atlas Scotl. I. 276 Sheep's dung, [Stirlingshire] nirls.
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1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Add. & Corr. Nirl, it is often used to denote a puny dwarfish person, whether man or child,..as, a weary nirl, a feeble pygmy.
1823 J. G. Lockhart Reginald Dalton III. vii. ii. 119 Why, he has nae mair calf to his leg than a greyhound—And sic a whey face!—a perfect nirl! as I sall answer.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
nirlv.
/nəːl/, U.S. /nərl/, Scottish English /nɪrl/, Irish English /nəːrl/ Scottish and Irish English (northern).
1. transitive. To shrivel, shrink; to pinch with the cold. Sc. National Dict. s.v. records this sense as still in use in Shetland, Fife, Midlothian, Clydesdale, and Lanarkshire in 1964.With quot. 1982 cf. etymological note s.v. murgeon v.
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the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > coldness > make cold [verb (transitive)] > nip or pierce (of cold)
piercec1387
nip1548
bite1552
sneap1598
nirl1808
1808 [implied in: J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Add. & Corr. Nirled, stunted; applied to trees. (at nirled adj.)].
1825 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Suppl. (at cited word) Nirl, to pinch with cold... To contract, to make to shrink. ‘Thai pickles (grains of corn) hae been nirled w' the drowth.’
1861 Dundee People's Jrnl. 9 Nov. The sudden cheenge o' the temperature i' the end o' last week completely nirled my neb an' sent the cauld shivers shootin' like arrows through my very banes an' marrow.
1982 Guardian 19 Jan. 10/8 Reports that Mr Jenkins had been overheard expressing the hope that ‘the de'il might nirl the noops’ of those guilty of such miscalling.
2. intransitive. To shrink into oneself with cold; to shiver. Sc. National Dict. s.v. records this sense as still in use in Shetland in 1964.
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1847 J. Halliday Rustic Bard 284 The frost in ilk place showed his cauld withering face, On ilka bleak hill sitting nirlin'.
1923 G. Watson Roxburghshire Word-bk. 222 Nurl,..to shiver or be pinched with cold.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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