Chiefly Sc. Also 5, 7 sturte, 6 stourt. [Metathetic form of STRUT sb.1]
1. Contention, violent quarrelling; contentious or violent behavior.
Usually associated in the context with strife, esp. in the set phrase sturt and strife.
[1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 3743. Ȝyf þou yn any strut, For Ire wundedyst a man, or hurt.]
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xliii. (Cecilia), 478. He sad til hire with sturt & schore: ‘til ydolis þu mak sacryfice.’
a. 1500. Ratis Raving, 3679. Oyss noght flityng, sturt, na stryf.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxvi. 31. Than Yre come in with sturt and stryfe; His hand wes ay vpoun his knyfe.
a. 1598. D. Ferguson, Sc. Prov. (1785), 28. Sturt pays nae debt.
1786. Burns, Nature’s Law, i. Let other heroes boast their scars, The marks of sturt and strife.
1831. J. Wilson, Noctes Ambr. (1856), III. 337. Goodwife—without a’ sturt or strife, Bring ben the siller bowl wi’ care.
1832. Hogg, Queer Bk., 15. And I will thrill thy frigid blood With marvellous tale of sturt and strife.
1881. Blackw. Mag., March, 399/1. He … who, amid all the sturt and strife of his manhood, had composed a system of philosophy.
1891. R. Ford, Thistledown, xviii. 326.
| I liv’d aw my deyes, but sturt or strife | |
| Was man o’ my meat, and master o’ my wife. |
† 2. Disquiet of the mind, vexation of the spirit.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, II. ii. 59. Dolorous my life I led in sturt and pane. Ibid., IV. Prol. 89. Lo, quhow from grace to all mischeif they flit, Fra weill to sturt, fra pane to deid!
1560. Rolland, Seven Sages, 83. The Emprice … For verie sturt in hir minde was richt wo.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. v. 279. In presoun, throw sturt and dule, he dies.
a. 1627. A. Craig, Pilgr. & Heremite (1873), 8. But where thou wouldst seeme to salue all my sore, And by thy strait statutes to stay all my sturt.
1681. Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 130. Fighting is a fool thing, What doth it else but sturt and dool bring.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), I. 99. My heart take neither sturt nor wae For Meg, for Marjory or Mause, But be thou blyth.
