Pa. t. and pa. ppl. wadset, -setted. Chiefly Sc. ? Obs. Forms: 4, 5 wed(de)sette, 4–7 wedset(t, 6, 7 wodset(t, 6–8 wadset. [Sc. form (with wad Sc. var. of WED sb.) of ME. wedset, f. WED sb. + SET v.; prob. developed from an OE. phrase *tó wedde settan ‘to set to pledge,’ to pawn, mortgage. (The recorded OE. phrases are tó wedde lecgan, sellan; cf. ‘Mi lond ich wulle sette to wedde,’ Layamon, 25172. OE. and ME. had also wed settan, to sette wed = to deposit a pledge.)] trans. To put (land, clothes, etc.) in pledge; to pawn, mortgage.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 11796. Al my lond schal y wed-sette ffor gold & seluer.
a. 1400. Burgh Laws, lxxix. (Sc. Stat. I). Of lande þat is wedset wythin burgh.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxxii. 346. A place here beside, lorde, wolde I wedde-sette.
1506. Reg. Privy Seal Scot., I. 176. A Lettre of Licence … to analy or wedset to quhatsumever person or persons he ples ony xii merkis worth of land.
1508. Kennedy, Flyting w. Dunbar, 443. Thou drank thy thrift, sald and wedsett thy clais.
1572. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxii. 54. All our gay garmentis … We thame wedset, our bodyis to sustene.
1646. Z. Boyd, in Zion’s Flowers (1855), App. 31/1. The said Laird wodset sold and disponed to us … the lands.
1678. [see WADSETTER 2].
1775. L. Shaw, Hist. Moray, 33. These, and some other possessions, are now wadsetted by William Gordon.
1859. Bk. Thanes of Cawdor (Spalding Club), 420. There follows … a list of the wadsets, from which we learn that Budgate was wadset to Mr. William Dallas for 10,000 marks.
fig. 1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 366. Blood, and the blood of God shed, cannot wadset ancient loue.
Hence † Wadsetting vbl. sb.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 520/1. Wedsettynge, impignoracio.
1509. Reg. Priv. Seal Scot., I. 295/2. The quhilk alienatioun or wedsetting the [King] willis … sal be na hurt … to the biaris.
1654. Lamont, Diary (Maitl. Club), 72. No money lent, or bargaine in sailling or wedsetting of land … was to be allowed.
