Scotch-Irish
Americannoun
adjective
-
of or relating to the Scotch-Irish.
-
of mixed Scottish and Irish descent.
Commonly Confused
See Scotch.
Etymology
Origin of Scotch-Irish
First recorded in 1735–45
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.
The terms Scots-Irish, Scotch-Irish and Ulster-Scots relate to people who left Scotland, settled as part of the Ulster plantation and then moved on to North America.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2025
However, it was lower for respondents with ancestry in several Caribbean nations as well as those with Azerbaijani, British, Celtic, French Canadian, Guyanese, Pennsylvania German, Romani and Scotch-Irish backgrounds.
From Seattle Times ● May 5, 2023
Drawing on Scotch-Irish folk tradition — selkies, merpeople — the musical tells the story of an island split in two.
From New York Times ● May 20, 2022
The Lamonts carried yet another Calvinist strand, Scotch-Irish, which was more defiant of established power.
From Salon ● Nov. 28, 2018
In the early eighteenth century, large numbers of these Ulster Scots—or Scotch-Irish, as they called themselves—and their descendants pulled up stakes and crossed the Atlantic to the British colonies there.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
