The conjunction nor has various dialectal uses in Scotland, Ireland, England and America. First of all it is used after comparatives, meaning "than." William Carleton in Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry (1843) has this: "Many another man would put salt wather between himself and yourself sooner nor become a battin'-stone for you." Lyttle's Paddy McQuillan has: "There wusnae less nor twenty horses."

The same writer's Ballycuddy (1892) contains this sentence: "It did him mair good tae see them enjoyin' it nor if he had et it himsel". Crofton Croker in his Legends and Stories of Ireland (1862) has: "The mistress managed it better than all that." Barrington in his Sketches (1830) has "Yeer handle is longer nor mine," from Co Kildare. From Cornwall the English Dialect Dictionary gives: "He guv moor nor tuppence for that." The American Dialect Notes of 1896 has "He is taller nor me." Emerson's Birds, ed. 1895, has "She be larger nor the cock," from Norfolk. Longman's Magazine of September 1900, gives, from Dorset, "You'd ha' had more sense nor to be workin' samplers." George Eliot in Silas Marner (1861) wrote: "The lard cakes turned out better nor common."

Then there are the phrases Better nor like, better than might be expected; and Nor better, better than. Hartley's Clock Almanac of 1869, a Yorkshire publication, has "Varry of the did better nor like, to say 'at he had to do it aght ov his own heed." Bickley's Surrey Hills (1890) has: "I've been married these two years nor better."

There is an elliptical use in such phrases as God nor, the deil nor, little would one care although.

"Then down ye'll hurl, deil not ye never rise!," sang Burns in The Brigs of Ayr.

Nor is also used in place of "although"; "if"; "that". Alexander's Ain Folk, written in Aberdeen in 1882, has: "Aw dinna won'er nor ye sud be gey concern't aboot her." "Nae wonder nor yer thin," is in Haliburton's Ochil Idylls (1891); and about a hundred years earlier, Crawford's Poems has the line, "I dinna doubt nor we'll agree."

The word Noration is still in dialect use in Scotland, Ireland and England. It means loud or prolonged talking; a great noise or clamour; a disturbance, fuss. "I don't give a pig's bristle for your norations," wrote Wexfordman Kennedy, in The Banks of the Boro (1867).