Sc. and north. dial. Also 5 tode, 6 todd(e, toad, 7 todd. [A northern word of unknown origin; ‘app. not from Norse’ (Biörkman).
The suggestion that this word may be identical or connected with TOD sb.2, and have reference to the bushy or tufted tail of the fox, is at variance with chronology and local distribution. TOD sb.2 is essentially southern, while tod = fox is exclusively Scotch and Northumbrian, and was in use 400 years before tod = ivy-bush appears.]
1. A fox. Now only dial.
c. 1170. Reginald Dunelm., Libellus (Surtees), xv. 25. Pro caseo quem furto sustulit Tod agnomen accepit. Ibid., 28. Nam anglicæ linguæ … tota illius familia stirpis, Tod, quod vulpeculam sonat, cognominantur eloquio.
1508. Kennedie, Flyting w. Dunbar, 288. Todis, wolffis and beistis wyle.
1535. Lyndesay, Satyre, 3574. Birdis hes thair nestis and todis hes their den.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. p. xli. Toddis will eat na flesche that gustis of thair awin kind.
1588. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., 113. Eschewed as theewes, murtherars, tods, dogs, and wolues.
1637. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., I. iv. Or strew Tods haires, or with their tailes doe sweepe The dewy grasse, to d’ off the simpler sheep.
1721. Ramsay, Richy & Sandy, 49. Had the tod Worry’d my lambs.
1825. Scott, Betrothed, Introd. I have a grew-bitch at hame will worry the best tod in Pomoragrains.
1871. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 150. I’ll trap every tod that comes our way, and all t’other farmers … ’ll do th’ same.
b. in proverbial and allusive expressions; cf. FOX sb. 1 b, c. (See also 2.)
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (E.E.T.S.), xxv. 29. Be scho wylie as ane tod, Quhen scho winkis I sall nod.
1583. J. Melvill, Diary (1842), 137. Bischope Adamsone keipit his castle, lyk a tod in his holl, seik of a disease of grait fetiditie.
1706. Lett. fr. Country Farmer, 2 (Jam.). This will be very odd, for … Scotsmen to play their own Country sic a Tod’s turn.
1820. Scott, Monast., iv. Fear ye naething frae Christie; tods keep their ain holes clean.
2. fig. A person likened to a fox; a crafty person.
Tod’s birds, tod’s bairns, an evil brood, children or persons of a bad stock.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xiii. 37. Sum in ane lamb skin is ane tod.
1581. J. Hamilton, in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.), 74. The vnthankfull dealing of sik vylie [= wily] toddis.
1589. R. Bruce, Serm., 2 Tim. ii. 22 (1591), Y viij. [The affections] wald ever be handled as Tods birds; for they ar aye the war of ouer great libertie.
1639. Baillie, Lett. (1841), I. 196. To hold the islanders and these tod’s-birds of Lochaber in some awe.
1721. Kelly, Scot. Prov., 329. The Tod’s Bairns are ill to tame.
1789. Burns, Kirk’s Alarm, viii. Daddy Auld, Daddy Auld, there’s a tod in the fauld, A tod meikle waur than the Clerk.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, vi. Take care of the old tod; he means mischief.
b. transf. In the game of tod and lambs (in draughts), the piece representing the fox.
1812. W. Tennant, Anster F., II. lxx. Some force, t’ inclose the Tod, the wooden Lamb on; Some shake the pelting dice upon the broad backgammon.
† 3. ellipt. Fox-skin. Obs.
[14[?]. trans. Assisa David Reg. Scott., in Acts Parl. Scot., I. 667. Or a tymmyr of skynnis of toddis [12th c. orig. De tymbria wlpium].]
1503. Kalender Sheph., H v b. Gownys … furryt wyth toddys for yt ys the most heyt furryng that they may wse.
1506. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., III. 249. Item, for bordouring of it [goun to the King] with toddis,… xxiijs.
1564. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 308. Ane gown, lynit with toddis of blak, begareit with velvot.
4. attrib. and Comb., as tod-hunt, -hunter, † -pult (-powt) (sense uncertain), -skin; tod-hole, a fox’s hole or den; fig. a secret hiding-place; tod-lowrie (also Laurie Tod), a familiar name for the fox; cf. Reynard; † tod-stripe, a strip of woodland in which foxes have their holes; tod-tails (also tods’-tails), name for the club-moss, Lycopodium clavatum; tod-tike (-tyke), -touzing, -track: see quot. 1824.
c. 1170. Newminster Cartul. (Surtees), 62. Usquead *Todholes.
1844. W. Cross, Disruption, vi. We maun … try to find some tod-hole whaur the Doctor can ne’er get his clauts owre me.
1904. A. Thomson, Remin., II. v. 154. To go and have a *tod hunt in the Highlands.
1882. Standard, 10 Feb., 5/3. The *‘Tod hunter,’ who last century was kept in the Western Isles for the purpose of exterminating the foxes.
1822. Galt, Sir A. Wylie, II. xv. 144. His *tod-like inclination to other folks’ cocks and hens.
c. 1470. Henryson, Mor. Fab., V. (Parl. Beasts), xxii. The *tod lowrie luik not to the lam.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., IV. i. As fast as flaes skip to the tate o woo Whilk slee tod-lowrie hauds without his mow.
1511. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., IV. 198. Item, to Lance Ferry for ane lyning of *tod pultis to the samyn gowne … xviij li. Ibid. (1522), V. 194. Item, for ane lynying of tod powtis to the Kingis nichtgoun … viij l. v s.
1424. Sc. Acts Jas. I. (1814), II. 6/1. Or ilke x of otter skynnis and *tode skynnis, vj d.
c. 1440. Regr. Aberdon. (Maitl. Cl.), I. 250. Robert Innes … takis … part fra þe *tode stripe to Edinglasse.
1820. Blackw. Mag., June, 278/1. That singular and beautiful creeping ornament of the moorlands, called by the peasantry *tod tails.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., *Tod-tykes, dogs half foxes, half common dogs…. Tod-tracks, the traces of the fox’s feet in snow…. Tod-touzing, the Scottish method of hunting the fox, by shooting, bustling, guarding, halloaing, &c.
