Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A kern; a Highland or Irish irregular soldier.
  • noun A Highland freebooter or reaver.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Scot. A Highland robber: a kind of irregular soldier.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical A Highlander working as a professional fighter; a mercenary attached to a Scottish clan.
  • noun A freebooter, marauder.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Scottish Gaelic ceatharn ("troop"), ceathairne ("peasantry, yeomanry").

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Examples

  • What I found out about the name is that it's from the Gaelic word, "cateran" (or something like that), but I do remember that it means Highland Robber.

    TravelPod.com Recent Updates 2008

  • What I found out about the name is that it's from the Gaelic word, "cateran" (or something like that), but I do remember that it means Highland Robber.

    TravelPod.com Recent Updates 2008

  • What I found out about the name is that it's from the Gaelic word, "cateran" (or something like that), but I do remember that it means Highland Robber.

    TravelPod.com Recent Updates 2008

  • Whatever were occasionally the triumphs of this daring cateran, they were often exchanged for reverses; and his narrow escapes, rapid flights, and the ingenious stratagems with which he extricated himself from imminent danger, were no less remembered and admired than the exploits in which he had been successful.

    Chronicles of the Canongate 2008

  • Her love of MacTavish Mhor had been qualified by respect and sometimes even by fear, for the cateran was not the species of man who submits to female government; but over his son she had exerted, at first during childhood, and afterwards in early youth, an imperious authority, which gave her maternal love a character of jealousy.

    Chronicles of the Canongate 2008

  • It was the fault of yon Highland cateran, whom it is my curse to be cumbered with; but he shall go back to his glens tomorrow, or taste the tolbooth of the burgh.

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

  • “Clear the way, cateran,” said the armourer, in the deep stern voice which corresponded with the breadth of his chest.

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

  • Who so likely as MacPhadraick to indicate to a young cateran the glen in which he could commence his perilous trade with most prospect of success?

    Chronicles of the Canongate 2008

  • I would rather she went to the wild Highlands with a barelegged cateran than wed with one who could, at such a season, so broadly forget honour and decency.

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

  • MacTavish Mhor had not sat still on that occasion, and he was outlawed, both as a traitor to the state and as a robber and cateran.

    Chronicles of the Canongate 2008

Comments

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  • On lonely roads nothing is rarer than

    That stranger should prove a samaritan,

    So pray he’s a blellum

    Or at worst a skellum

    But never a prey hunting cateran.

    May 23, 2018

  • Give the man a loon-slatt.

    May 23, 2018