common riding
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.41 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An annual festival in some Scottish towns, in which people conduct a ceremonial procession around the boundaries of the town in order to delineate the area and check for encroachment by neighbouring landowners.
noun
Alternative form of common riding.
Example Sentences
- "It was this folk-moot which instituted the common riding and invested it with all the religious ceremonial which primitive religion attached to every event in the life of its votaries."
- "This flag, or at least a copy of it, is said to have been borne at the annual 'common riding' ever since."
- "Because the order of each summer's common ridings is printed on the soul of native Borderers, it can be difficult to find the sequence written down anywhere."
- "The great day of the whole year in Selkirk is that of the Common Riding, the Riding of the Marches of the town's property."
- "There are four genuine or 'real' Common Ridings in the Borders: Selkirk Common Riding, with its 'Casting the Colours' ceremony, dates from the early 16th century; Harwick Common Riding was first recorded in 1640; Langholm Common Riding, which Hugh MacDiarmid loved to attend, dates from 1816, although the Langholm marches were perambulated before then; finally, Lauder Common Riding, like many other traditional customs, lapsed in the 19th century but was revived in 1911 to commemorate the coronation of George V."
- "It is the duty of the band to waken Hawick and to alert its folk, known as Teries, that today is the Common Riding, the loudest, proudest day in the town's calendar."