Irel. and Scotl. Obs. In 6 cuidichie, cuddeehih, cuddeich; cuddicke, -ikie. [Corruption of Irish cuid oidhche (of which Spenser’s cuddeehih was an approximate representation), lit. ‘evening portion.’]
1. orig. A supper and night’s entertainment due to the lord from his tenant.
1450. Stat. Ireland, Act 28 Hen. VI., c. 1. The Captaines of the same Marchours … doe gather and bring with them … both men and women … to night suppers called Cuddies, upon the said tenants and husbands.
1577–95. Descr. Isles Scotl. (in Skene, Celtic Scotl., III. App. 429). By thair Cuidichies, that is feisting thair master when he pleases to cum in the cuntrie, ilk ane thair nicht or twa nichtes about.
1586. J. Hooker, Girald. Ireland, in Holinshed, II. 23/2. That no lords … shall extort or take anie coine and liuerie, cosheries, nor cuddies, nor anie other like custome from thenseforth.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 623/2. The sayd Irish Lord is … cutt of from his customarye services … as Cuddeehih [v.r. Cuddie], Cosshirh, Bonaught, Shragh, Sorehim, and such like.
1892. Cochran-Patrick, Mediæval Scot., vi. 81. When systematically due … the custom of cuddikie … was restricted to four meals four times in the year to the Chief and his followers.
2. Hence, a rent or present in lieu of this; a present, a douceur, ‘a gift, a bribe’ (Jam.).
15[?]. Lease, in C. Innes, Sk. Early Sc. Hist. (1861), 385. A sufficient ‘Cuddeich’ [which I believe, means a present given in token of vassalage].
1728. Ramsay, Last Sp. Miser, xvii. Double pawns with a cudeigh, and ten per cent., Lay in my hands.
1811. Aiton, Agric. Surv. Ayrshire, Gloss. 691. Cudeigh, bribe.
1892. Cochran-Patrick, Mediæval Scot., i. 9. In the Western Islands this rent was called the ‘Cuddicke,’ and is mentioned late on in the fifteenth century.
