Citations:rickle o' banes

English citations of rickle o' banes

Noun: "(idiomatic) an emaciated person or animal"

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• 1876 — John Mactaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, Hamilton, Adams and Co. (1876), page 46:

  To behold him, mounted on his old shelty, was truly a laughable scene, the animal being always so lean — a perfect "rickle o' banes," […]

Scots citations of rickle o' banes

Noun: "(idiomatic) rickle o' banes"

1835 1881 1896

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• 1835 — John Monteath, Dunblane Traditions: Being a Series of Warlike and Legendary Narratives, Biographical Sketches of Eccentric Characters, &c., John MIller (1887), page 56:

  "Isna yer ghaist like a rickle o' banes rowed up in an auld din hide?"

• 1881 — William Reid, The Two Students, Houlston and Sons (1881), page 118:

  "How daur ye, ye rickle o' banes and rags, misca' only decent woman that gaet; […]

• 1896 — Maggie Swan, For the Sake o' the Siller, Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier (1896), page 66:

  "Guid sake! lassie, what an airm ye hev, deed ye're jist a rickle o' banes a' the gither, they haena gien ye yer meat doon at Balhelvie; aye, I kent brawly what it would be."