- a variation of ghillie.
gillie
Americannoun
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Scot.
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a hunting or fishing guide.
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a male attendant or personal servant to a Highland chieftain.
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noun
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an attendant or guide for hunting or fishing
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(formerly) a Highland chieftain's male attendant or personal servant
Etymology
Origin of gillie
First recorded in 1590–1600, gillie is from the Scots Gaelic word gille lad, servant
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He's what's known as a "gillie" and manages fishing along a stretch of the Wye – a river once famous for its Atlantic salmon fishing.
From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2026
First she lost her adored husband, Albert, and never got over it, and then John Brown, her beloved Scots gillie, died on her.
From New York Times ● Oct. 3, 2017
As a guest of Queen Victoria, Landseer went deerstalking with a gillie from Balmoral.
From Time Magazine Archive
That paragon of puritanical virtue, Queen Victoria, was thought by some of her contemporaries to be the secret wife of Disraeli or the secret mistress of her Scottish gillie, John Brown.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Gilchrist, Christ's servant, Gildea, servant of God, Gillies, servant of Jesus, Gillespie, bishop's servant, Gilmour, Mary's servant, Gilroy, red servant, we have the Highland "gillie."
From The Romance of Names by Weekley, Ernest
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
