Sc. and north. Also 6 wittir, 9 waiter, wutter, wyttyr. [prob. of Scand. origin: cf. Norw. vitr, vitring warning, sign (f. vitra to warn = ON. vitra to reveal), and WITTER a.1 and v.]
1. Something that serves as a mark, sign or token.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. iii. 52. A mark or wittir of ane greyn aik tre.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 272. Ane wyspe wpoun ewerie speir heid to be ane signe and witter to thame.
1644. D. Hume, Hist. Douglas & Angus, 98. He snatched away his spear with his guidon or witter.
1798. J. Naismith, Agric. Clydesdale, 105. To leave 20 or 25 select trees, called reserves or witters,… at each cutting.
1808. Jamieson, Waiter, a token, a sign.
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., Wutter, the rod which is put in the lithe stooks of corn.
2. Curling. The tee (TEE sb.3) towards which the stones are aimed.
1789. D. Davidson, Seasons, 166. Next Robin o’ Mains, a leader good, Close to the witter drew.
1811. Acc. Game Curling, 4. A … witter … is a small hole made in the ice, round which two circles of different diameters are drawn, that the relative distances of the stones from the tee may be calculated at sight.
3. attrib.: † witter hole, a hole serving as a mark in a witter stone; witter length Curling, as far as the tee; so witter shot, a shot that sends the stone exactly to the tee; † witter stone, a boundary stone, a ‘march stone.’
1615. Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1848), II. 323. Ane great merche stane, havand four *witter hollis.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., 65. Old wary curlers … won’t waste stones on the guards. They sail them past the sentinels, nigh *wutter length.
1823. Jas. Kennedy, Poems, 29. Their outer, and their inner wicks, And *witter shot.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., 184. Draw a Wutter Shot, a curling phrase, signifying to give the stone so much strength, that it may slide the length of the mark, and no farther.
1615. Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1848), II. 322. Ane great *witter stane in the muir, merkit with four hollis.
1679. Sir J. Lauder, Decis. (1759), I. 66. The Lords … Find … that the stone called the witterstone is not a stone for the regulating thereof [sc. the ‘regorging’ of water].
