sb. Sc. [Of obscure origin.]
1. A frolic, merrymaking, revel, carousal.
1785. Burns, Jolly Beggars, 1st Recit. A merry core … In Poosie Nancy’s held the splore.
1816. Scott, Bl. Dwarf, vii. You that like to hear o’ splores, heard ye ever o’ a better ane than I hae had this morning?
1873. C. Gibbon, Lack of Gold, xxviii. Like enough the folk have kept him to join in some splore.
2. A commotion or disturbance; a skirmish or encounter; a scrape.
1785. Burns, Holy Willie, xiii. An’ when we chasten’d him therefor, Thou kens how he bred sic a splore.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxv. Then came the splore about the surrendering your papers.
1843. Cracks about Kirk, I. 16. Mony a splore you and me hae had; but we can shake hands yet.
1879. ‘Sarah Tytler,’ Bride’s Pass, v. 50. He has not the ability to run wild and get into splores.
Hence Splore v. intr., to revel or riot; to make a commotion or show; to brag or boast, etc.
1796. Burness, Thrummy Cap (1893), 7. I’m a Christian man, Wha never lik’d to curse nor ban, Nor steal nor lie, nor drink nor splore.
1825. Jamieson, Suppl., To Splore, v.n., to show off, to make a great show.
1862–. in Eng. Dial. Dict.
