v. Sc. and n. dial. Also 6–7 tyr, tyrr, 6–9 tir, 7 tirre, 9 terr. [app. a reduced form of TIRVE v.1 in same sense (see quot. 1553 in 1 b), and cf. Sc. ser’ for serve, turris for turves.]
1. trans. To strip or tear off (a covering, esp. the thatch, slates, or roofing of a house).
1571–5. Diurnal Occurr. (Bann. Cl.), 219. Ane commandement gevin … to tir and tak doun all the tymmer werk of all houssis in Leith Wynd and Sanctmarie Wynd.
1584. Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 681. [He] tirrit and reft doun the faill and thak of his barnis.
1635. Dickson, Pract. Wks. (1845), I. 83. He shall tirr the visorne off your faces.
1670. R. Law, Mem. (1817), 33. It tirred the sclates off it.
1777. in Cramond, Ann. Banff (1893), II. 97. There is no mending of the slating without tirring the sclates.
1795. A. Wilson, Spouter, 581. Mony a fierce storm had tirred the thack.
2. To strip (a person) naked; to uncover, unroof (a house, etc.). Also fig.
1553. Douglas’s Æneis, IX. viii. 78. In quhat land lyis thou manglit and schent, Thy fare body and membris tyrryt [ed. Small tyrvit] and rent?
1572–5. Diurnal Occurr. (Bann. Cl.), 307. The laird of Collingtonis hous in Forrestaris Wynd wes half tirrit.
1578–9. Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 83. Als meikle to say ‘Tyr the kirk and theik the queir.’
1590. Reg. Privy Council Scot., IV. 492. Eftir thay wer tirrit to thair sarkis. Ibid. (1644), VIII. 101. They causit thair officers and hangman tirre us mother naked.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1850), I. 70. Quhilk the said James espying, fallis to shortlie and tirris the houss. Ibid. (1851), II. 407. Thir cruell Irishis, seing a man weill cled, wold first tyr him and saif the clothis onspoyllit, syne kill the man.
1763. in Lauder & Lauderd. (1902), 86. The west side of the Manse must be tirred and sclated anew.
1808. Jamieson, s.v., Tir one to the skin, i. e. strip him naked.
1894. P. H. Hunter, James Inwick, xi. (1900), 153. A man … that cares na wha be tirred gin he be theekit.
1901. Dundee Advert., 11 Feb., 6. In a minute or two the whole of the north side of the roof was completely tirred.
b. intr. (for refl.) To take off one’s clothes; to strip, undress.
1787. W. Taylor, Scots Poems, 67. Hame I gaed … An’ than I tirr’d, an’ to my bed.
1825. Jamieson, Tirr,… to undress, to pull off one’s clothes.
1891. A. Matthews, Poems & Songs, 52. I quickly tirr’d doon to the sark.
3. trans. To bare (land) of its surface covering; to pare off (the turf or surface soil) from land; to lay bare (the stone in a quarry) by removing the superincumbent soil and clay. With the thing laid bare, or the covering, as object. Also absol.
c. 1567. Survey Shilbottle, in New County Hist. Northumbld. (1899), V. 425. The ground also, by reason of castyng so great numbre of turves, [is] so tyrred and maide baire, that of a greate parte therof groweth no grasse.
1593. Aberdeen Regr. (1848), II. 85. The saidis Inchis ar sa flayne and tirrit, that … thair is na faill to be had thairin.
1808. Jamieson, Tirr,… to pare off the sward by means of a spade … before casting peats.
1867. D. D. Black, Hist. Brechin, ii. 18. Some years ago, when the earth was tirred from the garden on the top of the bank alluded to, a skull was found buried.
1899. Montgomerie-Fleming, Notes on Jamieson, 169. Tirr,… to remove the soil and sub-soil from above a bed of sandstone in a quarry.
Hence Tirr sb., the soil or sub-soil removed from the bed of a quarry (Montgomerie-Fleming, Notes on Jamieson, 1899); Tirring vbl. sb., the stripping off of the incumbent soil, etc.
1794. Statist. Acc. Scot., XIII. 201. These quarries require very little tirring.
1902. Daily Record & Mail, 11 Sept., 3. A couple of men had agreed to do some quarry tirring…. The tirr suddenly collapsed and a man … was killed.
