Forms: 4–5 swogh(e, swough(e, 6 swouch, 6– souch, 7– sough (8 zough), 8– sugh (9 seugh, soogh, sooch, etc.); 4 swowh, 4–5 swow(e, 5 sow, 9 soo. [ME. type *swōh, swōȝ, from the verb swōȝen: see SOUGH v.1 From the 16th cent. almost exclusively Sc. and north. dial. until adopted in general literary use in the 19th.
The pron. (sǫf) is given by Smart (1836), and Ogilvie (1850).]
1. A rushing or murmuring sound as of wind, water, or the like, esp. one of a gentle or soothing nature.
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 247. Of sykys hoote as fuyr I herde a swow that gan a-boute renne. Ibid. (c. 1384), H. Fame, 1031. Herestow not the grete swogh?
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 759. With þe swoghe of þe see in swefnynge he felle.
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 519. The soft souch of the swyr … Myght confort ony creatur of the kyn of Adam.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, II. xi. 81. Ilk swouch of wynd, and every quhisper … affrayit [me].
1785. Burns, Cotter’s Sat. Nt., ii. November chill blaws loud wi’ angry sugh.
1792. Wordsw., Descript. Sketches, 359. Faint wail of eagle…, and pine-wood’s steady sugh.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xxxiii. It is the sough of the wind among the bracken.
1847. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, xii. That evening calm betrayed alike the tinkle of the nearest streams, the sough of the most remote.
1862. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XIII. vi. (1872), 73. Whereupon solemn waving of hats; indistinct sough of loyal murmur.
1879. Miss Bird, Rocky Mount., 101. The strange sough of gusts moving among the pine tops.
b. Sc. A canting or whining manner of speaking, especially in preaching or praying.
1723. Meston, Knight, 24.
| Give them the Sough, they can dispense, | |
| With either Scant or Want of Sense. |
c. 1730. Burt, Lett. N. Scotl. (1818), I. 171. The prayers are often more like narrations to the Almighty than petitions for what they want; and the sough, as it is called (the whine), is unmanly.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xiv. Never stir, if my auld mither is na at the preaching again! I ken the sough o’ her texts.
1894. ‘Ian Maclaren,’ Brier Bush, ii. 60. He’s a speeritually minded man, Maister Cosh, and has the richt sough.
2. A deep sigh or breath. Also transf.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 433. He siketh, with ful many a sory swough.
a. 1400. Isumbras, 89. His hirde-mene mett he everylkone With a fulle drery swoghe.
14[?]. Chaucer’s Troylus, IV. 375 (Cambr. MS.). Among his sobbis & his sowis sore.
1616. B. Jonson, Epigrams, cxxxiii. The well-greas’d wherry now had got betweene, And bad her fare-well sough, vnto the lurden.
1788. Voc. Bargie, in Trans. R. Irish Acad., II. 35. Zough, a sigh.
1790. Burns, Battle of Sherra-Moor, i. My heart, for fear, gae sough for sough.
1885. Field, 12 Dec., 832/1. From the loch would come the sough of a porpoise or the wild cry of a loon.
1901. G. Douglas, House w. Green Shutters, 298. It was hours ere he slept, but at last a heavy sough told her he had found oblivion.
3. A rumor; a report.
1716. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 172. By the souch of members I imagine the Duke of Argyle will be named.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxix. There was a sough in the country about it, but it was hushed up.
1821. Galt, Annals of Parish, xii. I found … a sough of something extraordinar going on.
1900. Mrs. E. H. Strain, Elmslie’s Drag-net, 35. I had heard some sough o’ a byre at Kelso that had been smitten.
4. To keep a calm (or quiet) sough, to keep quiet, to say little or nothing. Sc.
1808. Jamieson, Keep a calm souch, be silent.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xx. I’se aye keep a calm sough.
1863. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, II. 103–4. Not that I iver let on to them…, so keep a calm sough, my lad.
1880. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Rebel Family, xiii. So that, on the whole, keeping a calm sough was the best wisdom.
Hence Soughfully adv., with a soughing sound; Soughless a., silent, noiseless.
1851. W. Hay, Lintie o’ Moray, 41. Gentle stream, Wi’ soughless waters onward stealin’.
1890. Amelia E. Barr, Olivia, xx. The trees … talked soughfully among themselves.
