Sc. Forms: 5–9 bodin, 6 -yn, boidin, 7 boddin, 9 boden. [Boden occurs in the Scottish Acts from 1429 in the sense of ‘accoutred, armed.’ The form is that of the pa. pple. of BID, and it has been conjectured that in the formula ‘all boden in feir of weir’ it meant originally either ‘offered’ or ‘summoned by proclamation’; but if this was so, it is difficult to account for the change in the use of the word. (The sense suggests some connection with boun, BOUND, ‘ready, prepared.’) See FEIR.]
† 1. Provided with arms, accoutred, armed. Obs.
[Cf. 1375. Barbour, Bruce, viii. 103. I trow he suld be hard to sla, And he war bodyn all evynly.]
1429. Scot. Acts Jas. I. (1597), § 122. Ilk Barronne … sall see and ordaine his men to be bodin, as is before written. And gif he dois not this … the Schireffe sall raise of ilk ȝeaman then not bodin, as is foresaid, a wedder. Ibid., § 123. Burgesses of twentie pundes in guds salbe bodin with hat, doublet, or habirgeon.
c. 1505. Dunbar, Daunce, 36. Bostaris, braggaris and barganeris … All bodin in feir of weir.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. xii. 126. For thai wald be lycht bodyne ay to ryn.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 644. Weill boidin with bow, buklar and brand.
1639. His Majesty’s Procl. Scotl., 6. Great troups and bands of men, all boddin in fear of war, with guns and pistolets.
[1820. Scott, Monast., xxxiii. Bodin in all that effeirs to war. Ibid. (1828), F. M. Perth, I. 20. Bodin in effeir of war.]
2. Provided, furnished, fitted out, prepared; dressed. Usually with well or ill.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VII. ix. 213. The Byschapys, and the gret Prelatis … thai war better bodyn to pay.
a. 1774. Fergusson, Election, Poems (1845), 40. ‘Where’s Johnny gaun, That he’s sae gaily bodin?’
1776. Ramsay, Sc. Prov., 32 (Jam.). He’s well boden there ben, that will neither borrow nor lend.
1806. in R. Jamieson, Pop. Ballads, I. 293 (Jam.). His pantrie was never ill-boden.
