In Scott cailliach. [Gaelic cailleach old woman, orig. ‘nun,’ f. caille pallium, veil.] An old (Highland) woman, a crone.
1814. Scott, Wav., I. xviii. 280. Some cailliachs (that is, old women that were about Donald’s hand. Ibid. (1828), F. M. Perth, III. 121. Think you the Clan Quhele have no cailliachs, as active as old Dorothy.
