Gillie

Quick meaning: Gillie is a noun meaning (Scotland, originally) A male attendant of a Scottish Highland chief.

Meaning

(Scotland, originally) A male attendant of a Scottish Highland chief.

More Meanings

1. (intransitive) To be a gillie, a fishing or hunting guide, for (someone).
2. (Scotland) A gill of an alcoholic drink.
3. (British, Ireland, Scotland) A fishing and hunting guide; a man or boy who attends to a person who is fishing or hunting, especially in Scotland.

Example Sentences

[H]e said, "I hae the day off tomorrow. I'll take ye out on the Anstey if ye want." This met with Patricia's ideas of what was right or fitting. Fishing on a Scottish river with a policeman as ghillie was socially acceptable to her mind.

Courage and coolness are great qualities in a gillie, and you do not really know your man till you have been with him in a storm. […] Most gillies have cool heads and hearts of oak. They must have these qualities; to be cool and courageous is part of their job.

Before we knew it, we were on a Fokker, twin engine, jet aircraft out of Copenhagen bound for Stavenger, Bergen and Trondheim, Norway, where we rested up for two days before boarding a four passenger float plane in the tiny Village of Hell. The Land Rover manned by our gilly (guide) waited where the A-Elv River joined the sea at the head of the fjord.

But my good companion had nothing in his mind but kindness; and the next moment, two of the gillies had me by the arms, and I began to be carried forward with great swiftness (or so it appeared to me, although I dare say it was slowly enough in truth), through a labyrinth of dreary glens and hollows and into the heart of that dismal mountain of Ben Alder.

Word Forms

• gillies
• gilly
• gillying
• gillied

Synonyms for gillie

Depending on context, synonyms include ghillie.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include ghillie, gill, gallowglass, laird, highlandman, goodsire.

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