Sc. and north. dial. [History obscure; ? related to TIFT ppl. a. and TIFT v.1] Condition, order; condition of mind, mood, humor.
1717. Ramsay, Elegy on Lucky Wood, vii. Beef, dry fish, or cheese, Which kept our … health in tift.
1722. Wodrow, Hist. Ch. Scot., II. III. iv. § 4. 140. The King’s Horse being in good Tift.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., I. i. I’m in tift to hear you play and sing.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., 449. A poet’s muse is in tift when she sings well; corn also is in tift when it is dry, viz., in tift to lead.
1904. in Eng. Dial. Dict., cited Cumberld., to Cheshire, and n.-w. Derbysh.
