Sc. Forms: α. 8 wirrycow, -kow, 8–9 wirricow, -kow. β. 8–9 worry, worricow (9 worriecow, warricoe). [f. WORRY v. + COW sb.3 (as if ‘a goblin apt to worry’).] A scarecrow; a hobgoblin. Also transf. a person of frightful or unprepossessing appearance.
α. 1711. Ramsay, On Maggy Johnstoun, xi. I hirsl’d up my dizzy Pow, Frae ’mang the Corn like Wirricow. Ibid. (1728), Gen. Mistake, 181. Much hated Gowk, tho’ vers’d in kittle Rules, To be a Wirry-kow to writing Fools.
1815. G. Beattie, John o’ Arnha’ (1826), 41. Or yet wi’ wirriekows to mingle, That brinstane belsh.
1894. Crockett, Raiders, vi. That’s Yawkins and his crew … the ill-contriving wirricows.
β. 1757. Smollett, Reprisal, II. i. It canna be our commander Monsieur de Champignon, running about in the dark like a worricow.
1789. D. Davidson, Seasons, 122. The worrycow gid sic a yell.
1809. T. Donaldson, Poems, 37. Where harpie, imp, an’ warricoe, An’ goblins dwell.
1816. Scott, Bl. Dwarf, ii. They do say there’s a sort o’ worricows and lang-nebbit things about the land. Ibid. (1818), Hrt. Midl., xxviii. It … keeps unceevil folk frae staring as if ane were a worrycow.
b. with the = the Devil.
1719. W. Hamilton, 3rd Ep. Ramsay, xiii. May thou … thro’ thy creed, Be keeped frae the wirricow, After thou’s dead.
a. 1774. Fergusson, Farmer’s Ingle, vii. Auld warld tales … O’ warlocks loupin’ round the wirrikow.
