v. Sc. and north. dial. [Imitative.] intr. To utter a somewhat protracted shrill cry, like the curlew or plover; also, to whistle feebly (intr. and trans.). So Wheeple sb.
1793. Statist. Acc. Scot., VII. 601, note. I wad na’ gie the wheeple of a whaup for a the nightingales that ever sang.
1818. Hogg, Brownie of Bodsbeck, Hunt of Eildon, v. Like Redwings wheepling through the mist.
a. 1837. R. Nicoll, Poems (1843), 284. We’ve a’ been heathens—now we pray, And sing and wheeple.
1901. G. Douglas, House w. Green Shutters, 80. He sometimes wheepled a tune.
