saugh

English

Etymology

See Scots sauch.

Noun

saugh (plural saughs)

1. (archaic) willow
   • 1836, Robert Monteath, The Forester's Guide and Profitable Planter, Etc. Third Edition‎^[1]:

     There are a very great many kinds of saugh, or willow tree, and Holland is said to be the native place, and great nursery of them

   • 1857, Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641‎^[2]:

     After that we have cutte our wilfes and saughs […]

   • 2021, Nancy Mitford, Highland Fling:

     There are some parts of Scotland where it would be impossible to find a saugh for miles that had not a grassy mound before it, telling a bloody tale.

2. A small burn or creek.
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 4 p. 59:

     By Morgany doe drive her through her watry saugh (marginal gloss) A kind of Trench.

   • 1889, George Muirhead, The Birds of Berwickshire, page 188:

     The nest, which is composed of dry bents lined with hair, is generally built close to the ground, among rank vegetation or rushes, but I have sometimes found it in low willow bushes in a saugh bog.

   • 1897, Alan Reid, The Bards of Angus and the Mearns, page 83:

     oo the lambies bleat an' play owre the green and grassy haugh, An' in wayward gambols stray doon the burn beside the saugh;

References

• The English Dialect Dictionary R-S (1904)

Anagrams

• Haugs, agush, ghaus

Middle English

Verb

saugh

1. past of seen