Now Sc. Also 4 kyrk-yarde, 45 kirk(e)-ȝerd(e, 5 kyrkȝerd, kyrkeȝerde, kyrk-yharde, 7 Sc. kirkyaird. [f. KIRK sb. + YARD.] Northern form of CHURCHYARD: now confined to Scotland: cf. KIRK-GARTH.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 29349. In kyrk-yarde aght naman him deluen.
[1377. Langl., P. Pl., B XIII. 9. No corps in her kirkeȝerde ne in her kyrke was buryed.
14[?]. Nominale, in Wr.-Wülcker, 722/12. Hoc semitorium, a kyrkȝerd.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., ibid. 803/5. Hoc atrium, a kyrkeȝerde.]
a. 1636. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., II. iii. Our dame Hecate Made it her gaing-night, over the Kirk-yard.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., Introd. The Cameronian monuments, in the old kirkyard of Kirkchrist.
1896. New-York Scot. American, Oct. The auld kirkyaird on the grey hillside.