Definition of "syne"

At last he comes, and on his kneeThe wee tots a'thegether cling,An' ilk yen strives to catch his ee,Syne tugs his cwoat an' bids him sing.

1866, Susanna Blamire, edited by Sidney Gilpin, Songs and Poems, page 17

Sic a pair o' friends aa nivvor seed either before or syne.

1894, Howard Pease, The Mark o' The Deil And Other Northumbrian Tales, page 20

Yet in two-three years they'd chaved and saved enough for gear and furnishings, and were married at last, and syne Will was born, and syne Chris herself was born, and the Guthries rented a farm in Echt […] .

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair; 1), Polygon, published 2006, page 38

[Each rogue] shall be discovered either soon or syne.

W. Hamilton (Life of Wallace)

"I had rather it came to-morrow than a month hence. Come, I know, it will; and, as your country folks say, better soon than syne […]

1843, Walter Scott, Waverly, page 357

I eat, drink, and sleep as sound as I did twenty years syne; yes, I laugh heartily too, and find as many subjects to employ that faculty upon as ever; fools, fops, and knaves, grow as rank as formerly, yet here and there, […]

1808, Allan Ramsay, The Gentle Sheperd, page 64

Camden Lyde had come to dwell in Mapleblade, a long while syne. His father had been in times past the parish parson, and the son was kindly affectionate to the old village scenes, and to the faces that seemed in some sort to belong to him […]

1859, Old and Young, page 11

I've niver set fute i' Gibb's Ha' syne his father's death.

1840, Howitt, Hope On, page ii

Shoo's […] gitten fair pratty, syne Maister Allen gat wed.

1880, Wooers, Banks, III, i