camstairy

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English

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Etymology

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From cam (crooked) and uncertain second component.

Adjective

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camstairy (comparative more camstairy, superlative most camstairy)

  1. (archaic, Scotland) unruly; unmanageable
    • 1908, John Oxenham, Pearl of Pearl Island[1]:
      "Ah!" he said again, with a reproving wag of the head, for he knew now what was coming,--"idols are perverse, camstairy things at best, you know, and a bit out of date too.
    • 1884, various, Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, XXII[2]:
      My faither was on a strong mare, and I was on a bit powney; and amang the cattle there was a camstairy three-year-auld bull, that wad neither hup nor drive.