Wintle

v. Sc. Also 9 wuntle. [a. early Flem. windtelen, wend(t)elen ‘voluere, volutare’ (Kilian), f. winden WIND v.¹]

  1.  intr. To roll or swing from side to side.

1786.  Burns, To Auld Mare, vii. Tho’ now ye dow but hoyte and hoble, An’ wintle like a saumont-coble. Ibid. (1790), Verses to J. Rankine, 8. From him that wears the star and garter, To him that wintles in a halter.

1819.  W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 173. And wi’ his prickin’ gude pyk-staff Made them rebound and wintle aff.

  2.  To tumble, capsize, be upset.

1867.  J. K. Hunter, Retrosp. Artist’s Life, xxx. (1912), 315. I took a hap, step and loup into his arms, and wintled ower beyond him in the bed.

1890.  Service, Thir Notandums, v. 28. At the whilk observe of mine, I thocht that his Lordship would have wuntled aff his cheyre.

  Hence Wintle sb., a rolling or staggering movement.

1785.  Burns, Halloween, xix. He by his shouther gae a keek, An’ tumbl’d wi’ a wintle.

1882.  Jas. Walker, Jaunt to Auld Reekie, etc., 127.