but and ben

but and ben

English

Noun

but and ben

1. (Scotland) A two-roomed cottage; a small house or shack
   • 1898, Elizabeth Grant, Memoirs of a Highland Lady, Canongate, published 1995, page 339:

     Whether the old lady had caught cold the time she moved, or whether her ailing frame had been simply worn out, she never seemed to thrive after leaving the little but and ben she had so long lived in.

   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song, Polygon 2006 (A Scots Quair), p. 30:

     It was no more than a butt and a ben, with a rickle of sheds behind it where old Pooty kept his cow and a bit donkey that was nearly as old as himself […]

Adverb

but and ben (not comparable)

1. In the inner and outer parts of a building

   to live but and ben