sawney
/ˈsɔːni/
sawney noun: a fool, an idiot.
Noun (1)
sawney (countable and uncountable, plural sawneys)
- A fool, an idiot.
- Bacon.
- Tyrrell, another boy, confirmed their testimony, and said, on one occasion, when they had stolen a heart, liver, and lights, the prisoner said, "go out, one or two of you, and see if you can get a bit of sawney!" (meaning a bit of bacon).1820, John Bull, volumes 1-2, page 363
- If a boy comes to the house on a night without money or sawney, or something to sell to the lodgers, a handkerchief or something of that kind, he is not admitted, but told very plainly, ‘Go thieve it, then.’1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861
Adjective
sawney (comparative more sawney, superlative most sawney)
Proper noun capitalized: Sawney
Sawney
- A diminutive of the male given name Alexander, of Scots origin.
- Sawney Bean
- But Sawney grew weary, and fain would be civil, / Being auld, and unfeary, and fail'd of his strength1812, John Bell, Rhymes of Northern Bards, page 185
Noun (2) capitalized: Sawney
Sawney (plural Sawneys)
- A Scotsman.
- “They can live upon barley-meal without a morsel of meat from week-end to week-end, can these miserable Sawnies,” quoth another.1874 July–December, W. Senior, “With the Herring Fleet”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, page 704
- He took the gibe and scowled at me--he spoke always like a Sawney, and could never pass for English; but in his pleasure at the discovery he had made he let the word pass.1897, Stanley John Weyman, chapter XIV, in Shrewsbury
Forms of sawney
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sawneys |
| plural | Sawneys |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more sawney |
| superlative | most sawney |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Sawny |
Origin of sawney
(fool, idiot): From Sawney, a Scots variant of the personal name Sandy.
Words that rhyme with sawney
Questions about sawney
- What does sawney mean?
- Sawney means a fool, an idiot.
- What part of speech is sawney?
- Sawney can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce sawney?
- Sawney is pronounced /ˈsɔːni/.
- What is the plural of sawney?
- The plural of sawney is sawneys.
Words near sawney in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sawney (page history and authors); Sawney (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “sawney.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sawney. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.