Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A ridge or rig (that is, a strip of ground) in land so divided that alternate rigs belong to different owners; hence, the system of land-holding by alternate rigs.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Mr. Gomme -- one of the very few English scholars who have paid attention to the subject -- shows in his work that many traces of the communal possession of the soil are found in Scotland, "runrig" tenancy having been maintained in Forfarshire up to 1813, while in certain villages of Inverness the custom was, up to 1801, to plough the land for the whole community, without leaving any boundaries, and to allot it after the ploughing was done.

    Mutual Aid; a factor of evolution Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin 1881

  • Such quarrels were common in Scotland when the runrig system of common fields, each man with his strip, prevailed.

    Homer and His Age Andrew Lang 1878

  • Many ploughs were at work at once on a Scottish runrig field, and each farmer had his own strip on several common fields, but each farmer held by rent, or by rent and services, from the laird.

    Homer and His Age Andrew Lang 1878

  • a bit like runrig "I'll take the high road" - check does it sound like every other charity single?

    Army Rumour Service 2009

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