Sc. Forms: 6 tinchill, tynchal, teinchell, 6–7 tinchell, 6, 9 tainchel(l, 7 tinckhell, 8–9 tinkell, 9 tinckell, tinkal, tinchal, tinchel. [ad. Gael. timchioll circuit, compass, round (as prep. = ‘around, about’).] In Scotland, A wide circle of hunters driving together a number of deer by gradually closing in upon them. Also attrib.
1549. D. Monro, Descr. West. Isles, § 15. All the Deire of the west pairt of that forrest will be callit [= driven] be tainchels to that narrow entres, and the next day callit west againe be tainchels through the said narrow entres, & infinit Deire slaine ther. Ibid., § 100. The Deire will be callit upwart ay be the Teinchell.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 56. Ilk ane lyand wait for wther as they had ben settand tinchellis for the murther of wyld beistes.
1618. J. Taylor (Water P.), Pennyles Pilgr., Wks. (1630), 136/1. Those foresaid Scouts which are called the Tinckhell, doe bring downe the Deere.
1814. Scott, Wav., xxiv. These active assistants spread through the country far and near, forming a circle, technically called the tinchel, which, gradually closing, drove the deer in herds together towards the glen where the Chiefs and principal sportsmen lay in wait for them.
1820. Hogg, Tales & Sk., Bridal Polmod, xiii. The tinkell was raised at two in the morning. Ibid., xvi. Tinckell.
1834. Mudie, Brit. Birds (1841), I. 283. He [dipper] gives chase, with all the confidence of one who drives deer into a tinchal, or ducks into a decoy.
1868. Nat. Encycl., I. 238. Hunting, which sport they carry on like the Scottish ‘tinkal.’
1904. Sir Herbert Maxwell, in Blackw. Mag., June, 757/2. A great black beast had come down to the low country, and carried off a couple of children near Cawdor, and that a tainchel or hunting-drive was to meet at Figiuthas.
