Shouglie means shaky, unsteady, something that feels a bit precarious and likely not to stand up to much weight, if you’re talking about a shelf for instance. This word is usually pronounced shoogilly.
A phrase that is often heard is, “Your coat is on a shouglie hook,” something that a bidey- in might say to their other half, – meaning if you don’t mend your ways and start behaving yourself, you will be getting thrown out, you’ll have to find another billet.
Gordon Brown’s coat in 10 Downing Street seems to be on a very shouglie hook. Unless miracles do happen he will definitely be looking for another London home on Friday.
I don’t know why the online Scots dictionary gives the spelling of this as shoggle (see http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/.)
I’ve usually seen it rendered as shougle or shoogle but never shoggle.
It’s a mystery Jack. I can’t understand why words that are definitely pronounced ‘oo’ have ‘ou’ spellings. Perhaps shoggle is what they say in Kelvinside!