Meanings
plural forpets · alternative forpit
- ScotlanddatedA quarter (fourth part) used especially as a unit of mass or capacity.
The forpet, or one-fourth part of a peck, contains 3 Scotch standard pints and one choppin, is 7¾ inches diameter at the bottom, 6¾ inches at the mouth, and 9⅛ inches deep.
1816, James Cleland, Annals of Glasgow, volume 2, page 2212 more examples
Now, as I learned afterwards[…]that straw is used each day, which carried six bolls, one firlot, and three forpets of grain; that each bunch of straw yielded something less than one peck and three forpets; and that the extent of ground which produced the straw for one day's consumption, was seventy hundredth parts of an acre, Scotch measure.
1807, Letters from a young Farmer to his Father: The Farmer's Magazine, volume 8, Edinburgh, page 472[…]they were gradually disposed of during the winter and ensuing spring, on the Edinburgh street—hawked about in carts, or sold to hucksters, who re-sold them to the town's people, in forpets and half-forpets, at a small advance in price, (about a shilling on a boll,) to reimburse them for their trouble.
1829, George Robertson, Rural Recollections, page 313
Synonyms & antonyms
Cite this entry
forpet. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forpet
“forpet.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forpet. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “forpet,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forpet.
Source: forpet on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.