Part 59

Gie is a gude fellow, but he soon wearies.

Meaning, that one tires of giving at all times.

Gie losin' gamesters leave to talk.

Giff gaff maks gude friends.

Gie my cousin kail enow, and see my cousin's dish be fu'.

We presume that this is an ironical signification that the cousin's "room" is preferred to his company.

Gie ne'er the wolf the wedder to keep.

Gie ower when the play's gude.

Gie't about, it will come to my faither at last.

Gie the deil his due, and ye'll gang to him.

Gie ye a use, and ye'll ca't a custom.

Gie ye meat, drink, and claes, and ye'll beg among your friends.

Applied to unreasonable people, who get everything they want, and still are not satisfied.

Gie your heart to God, and your alms to the poor.

From the remarkable paucity of proverbs relating to religion in the older collections, we infer that this saying is Henderson's own, as it only appears in his collection.

Gie your tongue mair holidays than your head.

Girn when you knit, and laugh when you louse.

Meaning, that while enforcing discipline we should do so with firmness, and relax it freely when occasion requires.

Glasgow for bells, Lithgow for wells, Falkirk for beans and pease.

Glasgow people, Greenock folk, and Paisley bodies.

"These words imply gradations of dignity, the Paisley bodies being (how far deservedly would admit of much question) at the bottom of the scale. Some years ago, when a public dinner was given to Professor Wilson, of Edinburgh, in Paisley, which is his native place, on his speaking of it as a town containing such and such a number of souls, his friend, Thomas Campbell, who sat by his side, whispered, 'Bodies, you mean.'"--Robert Chambers.

Glasses and lasses are brittle ware.

Glib i' the tongue is aye glaiket at the heart.

A smooth tongue betokens a deceitful heart.

Glowering is nae gainsaying.

Glum folk's no easily guided.

"Glum" or morose people are difficult to manage.

God be wi' the gude Laird o' Balmaghie, for he ne'er took mair frae a poor man than a' that he had.