sb. Chiefly Sc. and north. Forms: 3–4, 7– stime, 5– styme, (steyme, stim). [Of obscure origin.
The Icel. skíma (‘Fra dagmálum til nóns sá ekki skímu úti heldr en menn vǽru blindir,’ Isl. Ann., 254. c. 1685) coincides in use with the Eng. word.]
1. In the phrase not to see a styme: to be unable to see at all.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 19652. Noþer he ete þaa thre dais time, Ne he iwiss moght se a stime.
c. 1475. Henryson, Poems, III. 86. To kene þe self a styme it [the spirit] may nocht se, For stammeris [MS. scammeris] on eftir effectioun.
a. 1568. A. Scott, Poems, xxxiii. 23. Thow [Cupid] markis quhair nevir styme thow seis, Bot hittis be gaiss.
1635. Jackson, Creed, VIII. iv. 36. If a man cannot see (as we say) a stime, but with one eye, we account it no solecisme to say, hee hath lost the other.
1683. [G. Meriton], Yorksh. Dial., 8. My Neen … are seay Gummy and Furr’d up sometime. I can nut leauke at ’th Leet, nor see a stime.
1785. Burns, There’s naething like, ii. I’ve seen me daez’t upon a time: I scarce could wink or see a styme.
1808. R. Anderson, Cumbld. Ball., 142. Deil a wink cud I sleep, nay, nor yet see a steyme.
1841. Lever, C. O’Malley, cvii. The night was murthering dark; you could not see a stim.
1901. J. Mollison, Poems, 94.
| An’ mickle they feared that never again | |
| War their e’en tae see a stime; | |
| An’ the neebors advised them tae gang awa | |
| An’ come back some ither time. |
2. A glimpse or glance; the least bit or quantity (of anything); a glimmer (of light); a moment (of time).
1776. Herd’s Coll. Sc. Poems, II. 150. And ne’er a blyth styme wad he blink, Until his wame was fou.
1794. Har’st Rig, xxiii. To cut their fur, and tak their share O’ their nane rig. But ony mair? The fient ae stime!
a. 1807. J. Skinner, Amusem. Leis. Hours (1809), 108.
| Else you may come to rue the crime, | |
| O’ sic a sonnet, | |
| And wiss ye had ne’er seen a styme | |
| O’ Louse nor Bonnet. |
1888. Barrie, Auld Licht Idylls, vii. (1892), 151. Even with three wicks it [the lamp] save but a stime of light.
1895. Jane Barlow, Strangers at Lisconnel, vi. 120. You’ve ne’er a stim of light to be workin’ in, sittin’ there in the corner.
1897. E. W. Hamilton, Outlaws, ix. 102. There’s never a styme to choose betwixt him and James Hepburn.
Hence Styme v. intr. (see quot. 1808).
1808. Jamieson, To styme, to open the eyes partially, to look as one does whose vision is indistinct.
1886. J. J. H. Burgess, Shetland Sk., 66. I lookit an’ stimed inta da black dark aroond me, but I could see naethin’.
