sb. Scotch variant of ALE.
1785. Burns, Death & Dr. Hornbook, iii. The Clachan yill had made me canty.
a. 1800[?]. Bonnie Earl o’ Murry, in Child, Ballads (1889), III. 449/2. Her bread it’s to bake, Her yill is to brew.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xii. If they offer ye a drink o’ yill, or a cup o’ wine.
1885. Runciman, Skippers & Shellbacks, 98. The guests in the sanded kitchen were content with twopenny bottles of ‘yill.’
b. attrib. and Comb., as yill-caup [CAP sb.3], -house, -maker, making, -seller, -selling, -shop, -wife (see also Eng. Dial. Dict.).
1786. Burns, Holy Fair, xviii. The Change-house fills, Wi’ yill-caup Commentators.
1789. D. Davidson, Seasons, 13. Chiels wi’ sooty skins, an’ yill-caup een.
1790. Jas. Fisher, Poems, 59. Ye’re welcome neighbour yill wives here.
Hence Yill v. trans., to entertain with ale.
1808. Jamieson, To Yill, v. a., to entertain with ale, a term commonly used by the vulgar … to denote one special mode in which a lover entertains his Dulcinea at a fair or market.
1890. Service, Notandums, ii. 11. He forgot … to bid Maggie … to the yuillin’.
