Sc. and north. dial. Forms: see the vb. [f. next.] Itching, itch.
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. A v b. Wormwood … helyth also the yche or yuke. Ibid., P iv. The broth of them is good … for itche or yeewk that goeth ouer the hole body.
1572. Buchanan, Detectioun, in Jas. Anderson, Coll. (1727), II. 16. Certane blak Pimples … brak out ouer all his haill Body, with sa greit Zuik,… that he lingerit out his Lyfe with verray small Hope of Eschaip.
1715. Ramsay, Christ’s Kirk Gr., II. ix. When their hands he shook, Ga’e them what he got frae his dad, Videlicet, the yuke.
1722. in C’tess Suffolk’s Lett. (1824), I. 93. All the best families in the parish are laid up with what they call the yoke—which in England is the itch.
1824. W. Oliver, Songs, 7. For fear that … Scotch Donald chance to myek or free, An’ gie wor king the yuick.
[1901. Lett. to Editor, Among stablemen, coachmen, &c., the itch goes by the name of the ‘dukes’ (or dooks), and horses suffering from the complaint are referred to as ‘dukey (or dooky) horses.’]
