sprauchle

present singular third person sprauchles · participle present sprauchling · participle past sprauchled · past sprauchled · alternative sprackle · alternative sprachle · alternative spraickle

1. ScotlandintransitiveTo move in a clumsy manner; to stumble or sprawl; to clamber up with difficulty.

   However far he might sprauchle up the brae, he never forgot — or patronised — an old friend.

   1931, Arthur Alexander Thomson, The Burns We Love, page 86

   3 more examples

   We'll sprauchle yont life's roughsome way, / As canny as we dow; / An' souther oor affections aye, / In love's heart-warmin' lowe.

   1881, David Thomson, Musings Among the Heather: Being Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect

   We've routh o' disappointments as / We sprauchle up the brae, / We dinna get the things we want, / We lose the things we hae ;

   1897, Robert McLean Calder, William Shillinglaw Crockett, A Berwickshire Bard: The Songs and Poems of Robert McLean Calder

   Sandra, her man, Raymond an his wife, sprauchle ower roots an bushes, hurryin through the trees.

   2001, Janet Paisley, Not for Glory, page 265

plural sprauchles · alternative sprackle · alternative sprachle · alternative spraickle

1. ScotlandAn awkward or struggling movement; stumble.

   ... this didn't instil a sense of security so with an incredibly awkward manoeuvre the axe was driven into the floor and a cowardly sprauchle backwards performed to stand secured by slings above the void.

   1969, Mountain - Issues 6-19, page 114

   2 more examples

   Well, Sir, just when the gentlemen had got within three yards of her, Nelly geid a bit awckward sprauchle, an' shot out a leg, but whether Nelly had mistaken her distance, or whether the men were up to her fa'en system an' wadna bite, never clearly appeared; but they werna forward in time to catch the lassie in their arms as she expected, an' after a sprauchle an' a stumble, down she came in good earnest, an' broke her arm.

   1830, Andrew Picken, The dominie's legacy, by the author of 'The sectarian'., page 137

   But, with the planks bein' jammed as they were, he didn't sink as deep as his waist, an' after a sprauchle or two, that cost him his hat, he struggled out on the far side, an' moved on towards home, more muddled in his intellects than ever.

   1930, The Strand Magazine - Volume 80 -, page 535