sb. Sc. and north. dial. Forms: 6 scyoure, 7 syour(e, sayer, seyer, 7–9 sire, syer, 8– syre. [Variant of SYVER.] A gutter, drain, sewer.

1

1513.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., IV. 523. To cast ane scyoure on the est syd of the place.

2

1601.  Charter, in Dallas, Stiles (1697), 769. For … upholding of Sinks, Syers, Gutters, Eyes [etc.].

3

1610.  Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 142/1. Lie airhoillis, staires, pottis, sinkis, syoures, lang-syouris, eyis, watter-gangis.

4

1643.  in Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1881), II. 55. To calsey betuixt-ther owne lands and the sayer.

5

c. 1680.  [F. Sempill], Banishm. Poverty, 37, in Watson, Coll. Scot. Poems (1706), I. 12. He and I lap o’re many a Syre.

6

a. 1823.  G. Beattie, John o’ Arnha, etc. (1826), 95. Let loathsome toads squat in a syre.

7

1894.  Northumb. Gloss., Sire, a sewer, a runner of water.

8