my jacket would be on a shoogly nail
Needed a translation:
😀
Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
SHOGGLE,
v., n. I. 1. Add to defin.: Also vbl.n.
Hence Add Phr.:
yer jaiket/coat's on a shooglie hook/nail/peg, You are in a precarious position, you are likely to lose your job.
Gsw. 1988
Michael Munro The Patter Another Blast 36:
jaiket ... The phrase of warning 'your jaiket's on a shoogly nail' is an indication that your position is not as secure as you might think; if you don't watch your step you might be out of a job.
Sc. 1994
Daily Record 26 Jan 52:
And if they send the Premier side tumbling out of the tournament, Smith knows Ivan Golac's coat would definitely be on a
shoogly peg.
Sc. 1995
Herald 1 Jun 11:
When it was all over, SNP leader Alex Salmond, said it had been an enormous moral victory for the small shareholders and a massive snub for the leadership of British Gas. “My message to Giordano and Brown is change course,” he added. “As we say in Scotland,
their jaickits are on a shooglie nail.”
Sc. 1996
Herald 12 Mar :
The rules are simple. A list is compiled of well-known people whose
jaikets are on a shoogly nail lifespan-wise. The names are allocated in a raffle and when someone on the list shuffles off the holder of the winning ticket takes all.
Sc. 1998
Scotsman 19 Feb 27:
Out from under a tobacco cloud IT IS perhaps just as well that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have finally removed Eddie George’s j
acket from its shoogly nail at the Bank of England.
Sc. 1998
Daily Record 11 Sep 71:
He needs to turn his team round very soon or a reputation principally based on his playing days at Aberdeen will not be robust enough to protect his
jacket from the cruel end of the shoogly nail.
Sc. 1999
Herald 21 August 18:
If, as is now trumpeted in
The Herald's editorial line, the entire fabric of country life and "thousands" of jobs are dependent on fox-hunting I would suggest that their
coat is on a shoogly hook!
