sb. and adv. Sc. and north. dial. Also 7–9 sunckat, 8 sunkot, 9 suncket, sunkit. [prob. derived from the strongly aspirated Sc. form of SOMEWHAT represented e.g., by the spelling sumquhat. With sense 2 cf. the etymological meaning of KICKSHAWS = F. quelque chose something.]
A. sb. (chiefly pl.)
1. Something, esp. something to eat.
1721. Ramsay, Lucky Spence, iii. Lay sunkets [v.r. sunkots] up for a sair leg.
a. 1722. Pennecuik, Merry Wives of Musselburgh, xlix. I came unco’ bravely hame, Whan I gat sunkets in my wame.
1810. Stagg, Minst. of N., Panic, xxi. (E.D.D.). ’Twas mete that sunkets they devised This pestment to destroy.
2. A dainty, tit-bit. Also fig.
1788. in Standard (1868), 21 Dec. It is resolved to meet at three o’clock to eat sunkets and drink to the glorious Revolution.
1815. Scott, Guy M., viii. There’s thirty hearts there that wad hae wanted bread ere ye had wanted sunkets. Ibid. (1818), Hrt. Midl., xviii. When they … harle us to the Correction-house … and pettle us up wi’ bread and water, and siclike sunkets.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Sunkets..., dainty bits; nice feeding.
1857. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., I. xxiv. 92. Fancy an army landing in England, and holding out such sunkets to tempt submission.
† B. adv. To some extent, somewhat. Obs.
1686. G. Stuart, Joco-ser. Disc., 2. I’s sunckat beuk-learn’d.
1790. Jas. Fisher, Poems, 73. An hour, I trow, an’ sunket mair.
