Has 'dreich' surreptitiously crossed the pond and does it lurk, somewhere, in AmE?

Solution 1:

A search on Google Books show a few usages of “dreich” in AmE, but they all appear to be related to Scots authors or to Scotland.

The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang by Tony Thorne says that “dreich” was used in England in the late ‘90s as a slang term.

A dialect term which was occasionally heard as a colourful new colloquialism in self-conscious use amongst middle-class inhabitants of England in the late 1990s.

• The weather is rather, as they say, dreich.

while the Green’s Dictionary of Slang has no entry for “dreich”.

The Dictionary of the Scots Language entry for dreich suggest that its usage is in Scotland and in north England dialect.

(2) Of the weather, scenery, etc.: dreary, cheerless, bleak. Gen.Sc. Also in n.Eng. dial.

Bnff. 1856 J. Collie Poems 120: Ae night when I came, wet and weary, Throu Habbie's howe baith drigh and dreary.

Ags. 1924 A. Gray Any Man's Life 44: In the cauld dreich days when it's nicht on the back o' four.

Fif. 1841 C. Gray Lays and Lyrics 83: The cauld frost had locked up ilk riv'let and fountain, As I took the dreich road that leads north to Dundee.

Ayr. 1788 Burns Duncan Davison i.: The moor was dreigh, and Meg was skeigh, Her favour Duncan could na win.

Kcb. 1881 T. Newbigging Poems 56: He's owre the hills that I love best, Yon lonely hills so dark and dree.

Rxb. 1916 Kelso Chron. (31 March) 4/1: Doon ablow it's dreich and gloomy as we wade among the slush.

Evidence suggests that the term didn’t survive in its original spelling in AmE though it most likely crossed the Atlantic.

As suggested by @tchrist in a comment the related term dree can be found in AmE, but its usage is not common. Other variants are dreigh and driegh.