[‘ Shrivelled or pinched with cold or hunger; wasted, stunted, withered.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈnɪðəd/, U.S. /ˈnɪðərd/, Sc. /ˈnɪðərd/
Forms: /Eng. regional/ (north.) 16 *netherd*, 17–18 *nither’d*, 18– *nithered*; /Sc./ 18 *nither’t*, 18– *niddered*, 18– *nidderet*, 18– *nidderd* /Shetland/.
Etymology: < nither v. + -ed suffix1.
/Sc./ and Eng. regional (north.).
Shrivelled or pinched with cold or hunger; wasted, stunted, withered.
1691 J. Ray /Coll. Eng. Words/ (ed. 2) 52 /Netherd/, starved with Cold.
1737 A. Ramsay /Proverbs/ Ded., How nither’d and hungry wad the gentle board look without the product of your rigs and faulds?
a/1801 R. Gall /Braes O’ Drumlee in /Poems & Songs/ (1819) 122 Ye’ll bloom whan I wander abroad like a ghaist, Sair niddered wi’ sorrow an’ care.
1827 J. Watt /Poems/ 69 Why sae callous, and wither’d, Conscience dosent, dry and nither’d.
1857 T. Wright /Dict. Obsolete & Provinc. Eng./ 699/2 /Niddered/, cold and hungry.
1932 A. Horsbøl tr. J. Jakobsen /Etymol. Dict. Norn Lang. in Shetland/ II. 602/1 /Nidderet/, wasted away, miserable; very nidderet lookin’; a nidderet animal.
1971 A. Mitchell & S. Waddell /Teach Thissen Tyke/, /Nithered/, very cold. A condition found on the kind of day that affects brass monkeys adversely.
1999 /Northern Echo/ (Electronic ed.) 2 Sept., Tom Peacock..as Northern League linesman had had many a nithered knee on Stanley hill top.