scotch greys
Preserved but no longer current.
Sense 1
Lice. The headquarters of the Scotch greys: the head of a man full of large lice.
Era: ca. 1811 (Georgian)
Sources & notes
Historical definition reproduced from Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811 edition, public domain; Project Gutenberg #5402, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.
Sense 2
Lice. Our northern neighbours were calumniously reported, in the "good old times" of ignorance and prejudice, to be peculiarly liable to cutaneous eruptions and parasites.
Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “scotch greys” mean?
Lice. The headquarters of the Scotch greys: the head of a man full of large lice.
Is “scotch greys” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.