north. and Sc. [? Related to CURN v.]
† 1. pl. Grain, corn-crops. Obs.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 7158 (Trin.). To her tailes fire he bond … Þourȝe þe felde he made hem fle And so her curnes dud he brenne.
2. Sc. A grain.
1474. Act. Audit., 35 (Jam.). Of ilk chalder the thrid kurne.
c. 1540. Lyndesay, Kitteis Conf., 90. Curnis of meil, and luffillis of Malt.
1759. Fountainhall, Decis. Lords of Council, I. 334 (Jam.). The seed, which is excepted from the multure; this is the 4th pickle or curne.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, ch. xiii. If there be a drap mair lemon or a curn less sugar than just suits you.
1881. ‘J. Strathesk,’ Bits fr. Blink Bonny (1882), 137. I boil’d their meal and put a curn o’ spice in’t.
b. transf. A small number or quantity; a few.
1785. Jrnl. from Lond. to Portsm., 8 (Jam.). I saw a curn of camla-like fellows wi’ them.
1787. W. Taylor, Scots Poems, 72 (Jam.). I frae the neuk fresh coals an’ sticks, An’ i’ the chimly cast a curn.
1820. St. Kathleen, IV. 143 (Jam.). Only a curn bubbles brak on the tap.
1847. H. Miller, Geol. Bass Rock, 109. Yonder’s a curn o’ rough hills.
1891. A. Matthews, Poems & Songs, 54. Among a curn claikin’ wives.
