Sc. and north. Obs. = next.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2668. Do your knauebarns to circumces.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xii. (Mathias), 31. Gyf I consawyt haf þis nycht a knafe barne.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VII. xiii. 115. Þe Erlys awyn wyf wes lychtare Of a Knaive Barne.
a. 1800. Tam-a-Line, in Child, Ballads (1857), I. 366. If it be a knave bairn, He’s heir o’ a’ my land.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xi. He tell’d the Laird that the Evil One wad have power over the knave-bairn.
