Sc. Also 6 traike, 8 trake. [TRAIK sb. and v. appear together in Sc. soon after 1500. Origin uncertain; with sense 1 cf. Sw. tråk ‘troublesome task, painfulness, tiresomeness,’ tråkig adj., tiresome, troublesome, wearisome, and the vb. mentioned under TRAIK v. It is not clear that sense 2 is the same word, but cf. the vb.]
1. A plague, pestilence; mischief, disaster; also fig. of a person, one who is a ‘pest’ or ‘plague.’
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. ii. 141. Ane cruell pest and traik,… Fell on our membris with sic infectioun, Was na remeid. Ibid., XI. xv. 59. This wench, this vengeabill pest or traike.
1739. A. Nicol, Poems (1766), 20. The meikle trake come o’er their snouts.
1825. Jamieson, s.v., He that has nae gear will hae nae traik.
2. ‘The flesh of sheep that have died of disease or by accident’ (Jamieson).
1802. Findlater, Agric. Peebles, xiv. 208. The sheep dying of disease are used as flesh meat, under the designation of traik.
1815. Pennecuik’s Descr. Tweeddale, Notes 95. The poor,… sluggish Tweeddale shepherd, fed with his dog upon traik (sheep that have died of some disease).
Hence Traiky a., weak, worn out, fatigued.
1825. Jamieson, Traik, traichie, weak, in a declining state.
1846. in Brockett, N. C. Gloss. (E.D.D.).
1884. J. Tait, in United Presb. Mag., 157/2. Sometimes a treaky member of the flock can be utilized as food.
