Sc. and north. dial. Forms: 5–6 toquhir, -yr, 6 toquher, -eir, touchquhare, touchar, -er, towcher, (towher), tochar, 6–7 tochir, 7 tochare, tougher, 7–9 dial. towgher (9 togher), 6– tocher. [a. Irish and OGael. tochar (mod. Gael. tochradh) assigned portion, dowry, in OIr. assignment, f. tochuirim I put to, I assign, f. cuirim I put.] The marriage portion that a wife brings to her husband; dowry, dot.

1

1496.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 307. Giffen to Robert Lile, in his toquhyr of the Mertymes terme bipast je markis.

2

1536.  Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), II. 194. And [Rolland] in the name of Touchquhare, sall have all thay landis.

3

1546.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 43. The said Lord Governour sall gif in tocher with his said dochter to the said Eirle and his airis the soume of twa thousand, thre hundreith, and thrette thre pundis vis viii d.

4

1568.  Durham Depos. (Surtees), 86. The parties went … to hir frends, to demand towher.

5

1569.  Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), II. 314, note. He shall haue 100l … as towcher and mariadge money, whiche I gaue him with my dowghter Anne.

6

c. 1614.  Sir W. Mure, Dido & Æneas, II. 192. Now Dido may be tyed to Trojane mate, And thow receave, in tougher, Carthage great.

7

1674.  Ray, N. C. Words, 50. A Towgher, a Dower or Dowry. Dial. Cumb.

8

1692.  Sc. Presbyter. Eloquence (1738), 149. Ye ken well enough … that Lads do not marry Lasses now, except they have a Tocher.

9

1796.  Burns, Hey for a Lass, i. Then hey, for a lass wi’ a tocher; the nice yellow guineas for me.

10

1894.  Crockett, Raiders, 22. He married a lass from the hills who brought him no tocher, but … a strong dower of sense and good health.

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  b.  attrib. and Comb., as tocher-fee, -gear; tocher-band, a marriage settlement; tocher-good, property given as tocher or dower.

12

1792.  Burns, Gallant Weaver, iii. My daddie sign’d my *tocher-band, To gie the lad that has the land.

13

17[?].  in Kinloch, Anc. Sc. Ballads (1827), 85. ‘A clerk! a clerk!’ the king cried, ‘To sign her *tocher-fee.’

14

18[?].  Cath. Jaffery, iv., in Child, Ballads, VII. (1890), 225/1. For *tocher-gear he did not stand.

15

1538.  Aberdeen Regr. (1844), I. 158. To pay me the soume of thretty poundis … and that in *tochir gud for the mareage.

16

1609.  Skene, Reg. Maj., I. 25. The mariage being dissolved, the tocher-gude returnes and perteins to the wyfe.

17

1822.  Scott, Pirate, v. Though I fall heir to her tocher-good, I am sorry for it.

18