a. and sb. Sc. and north. dial. Forms: 4–5 quheine, qwheyn(e, 4–6 quheyn(e, -en(e, (5 qwhayne, 7 whein, wheene, 9 whean), 7–9 whin, 7– wheen. [Represents OE. hwéne (hwœne, hwǽne) in some degree, somewhat, instrumental case of hwón WHON = (a) few, the meanings of which it took over in ME.]
1. Few, not many.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, II. 244. Thocht thai war qwheyn, thai war worthy. Ibid., XI. 605. Quhenar be full fer war thai Than thair fayis.
c. 1400. Sc. Trojan War (Horstm.), II. 2283. Þe quheyne folk þat ware Liffand.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. iii. 43. On the huge deip quhen salaris did appear.
1557. Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 303. Within thir quheyne last immediat yeiris.
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., s.v., Aa hevn’t seen him these wheen days.
absol. c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xl. (Ninian), 921. Þe best part of þaim ves slane, & … quheine eschapit.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., IV. vii. 740. Qwhayne had toyme þar aynde to draw.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xiv. 14. So quhene the Psalme and Testament to reid Within this land was nevir hard nor sene.
2. A wheen (of), a few: in recent use = a ‘good few,’ a fair number.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VIII. 368. The king … With a quheyn [Edin. MS. quhone] lik poueralȝe, Vencust him vith a gret menȝe.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. vi. 45. Of mony wordis, schortlie, a quhene sall I Declair.
1680. in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., XLV. 237. A wheen of … canny wise professors. Ibid., 241. A whin knaves.
1682. Peden, Lord’s Trumpet, 20. O sirs! Christ had a whein noble worthies in Scotland.
1814. Scott, Wav., lxv. What use has my father for a whin bits o’ scarted paper? Ibid. (1816), Antiq., xxiv. There will be a wheen idle gowks coming to glower at the hole as lang as it is daylight.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, iii. 23. I wouldnae like the Balfours to be humbled before a wheen Hieland Campbells.
1901. G. Douglas, House w. Green Shutters, 71. ‘Have the carriers a big load?’ ‘Andy has just a wheen parcels, but Elshie’s as fu’ as he can haud.’
3. A wheen as advb. phr.: A little, somewhat.
1869. C. Gibbon, Robin Gray, x. The auld wife’s a wheen better.
