buck
nounverbverbnounnounverbnounverbverbcommon in dialogue
- United States//ˈbʌk//
- Australia//ˈbäk//
- Australia//ˈbɐ̞k//
- Ireland//ˈbʊk//
- //ˈbɜk//
A male deer, antelope, sheep, goat, rabbit, hare, and sometimes the male of other animals such as the hamster, ferret, salmonid, shad, skunk and kangaroo.
noun
- 1
A male deer, antelope, sheep, goat, rabbit, hare, and sometimes the male of other animals such as the hamster, ferret, salmonid, shad, skunk and kangaroo.
- 2
An uncastrated sheep, a ram.
- 3
An antelope of either sex; compare with Afrikaans bok.
There are all kinds of game in the valley, and you are unlucky if you do not see a giraffe or an ostrich, or at least a herd of buck.
- 4
The sound made by a chicken.
- 5
A young buck; an adventurous, impetuous, dashing, or high-spirited young man.
Swankey of the Body Guard himself, that dangerous youth, and the greatest buck of all the Indian army now on leave, was one day discovered by Major Dobbin tête-à-tête with Amelia, and describing the sport of pig-sticking to her with great humour and eloquence […]
- 6
obsoleteA fop or dandy.
This pusillanimous creature thinks himself, and would be thought, a buck.
The Captain was then a buck and dandy, during the reign of those two successive dynasties, of the first rank of the second order ; the characteristic of which very respectable rank of fashionables I hold to be, that their spurs impinge upon the pavement oftener than upon the sides of a horse.
- 7
datedA black or Native American man.
As we crossed Blackwell's Island a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl.
But this buck claimed he was a big war chief with the Nawyecky Comanches.
She got so she’d rather have a buck nigger than me!
Her curly red hair loose from its combs hangin' down her back and her freckled skin bare, and a big ole nigger buck was doin' things to her! He'd always known that Hootch Carter raped and killed Becky Nell, never had reason to doubt it.
- 8
obsoleteAn Aboriginal man.
‘A couple of Old Men wanted that young lubra and they’ve spurred on the bucks to chase Possum and cut his liver out.’
- 9
slangLowest rank; a private.
- 10
informalA unit of a particular currency A dollar (one hundred cents).
Can I borrow five bucks?
Won't yer give Jake ten bucks ter buy hisself some close, so he look nice 'mong de gemmens?
- 11
informalA unit of a particular currency A rand (currency unit).
- 12
obsoleteA unit of a particular currency A sixpence.
three and a buck
- 13
informalA unit of a particular currency A euro.
Those fools are all probably sitting outside the pork store, recalling the incident about losing a thousand bucks with the fake Gajas, and chewing on their soggy stogies.
- 14
informalA unit of a particular currency Money.
Corporations will do anything to make a buck.
It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.
- 15
A unit of a particular currency One million dollars.
- 16
slangOne hundred.
The police caught me driving a buck forty [140 miles per hour] on the freeway.
That skinny guy? C’mon, he can’t weigh more than a buck and a quarter [125 pounds].
- 17
An implement the body of which is likened to a male sheep’s body due maintaining a stiff-legged position as if by stubbornness. The body of a post mill, particularly in East Anglia. See Wikipedia:Windmill machinery.
- 18
An implement the body of which is likened to a male sheep’s body due maintaining a stiff-legged position as if by stubbornness. A frame on which firewood is sawed; a sawhorse; a sawbuck.
- 19
An implement the body of which is likened to a male sheep’s body due maintaining a stiff-legged position as if by stubbornness. A leather-covered frame used for gymnastic vaulting.
- 20
An implement the body of which is likened to a male sheep’s body due maintaining a stiff-legged position as if by stubbornness. A wood or metal frame used by automotive customizers and restorers to assist in the shaping of sheet metal bodywork.
Plans in hand, Frank first paid his friend Raniero a visit, and the artisan quickly went to work on a fortified wood buck that would serve as a form for the Griffith 600 Series, as the car was formally known and marketed by Griffith Motors.
- 21
datedAn implement the body of which is likened to a male sheep’s body due maintaining a stiff-legged position as if by stubbornness. An object of various types, placed on a table to indicate turn or status; such as a brass object, placed in rotation on a US Navy wardroom dining table to indicate which officer is to be served first, or an item passed around a poker table indicating the dealer or placed in the pot to remind the winner of some privilege or obligation when his or her turn to deal next comes.
- 22
datedAn implement the body of which is likened to a male sheep’s body due maintaining a stiff-legged position as if by stubbornness. An object of various types, placed on a table to indicate turn or status; such as a brass object, placed in rotation on a US Navy wardroom dining table to indicate which officer is to be served first, or an item passed around a poker table indicating the dealer or placed in the pot to remind the winner of some privilege or obligation when his or her turn to deal next comes. Blame; responsibility; scapegoating; finger-pointing.
pass the buck
the buck stops here
- 23
datedSynonym of buck dance.
- 24
Synonym of mule (“type of cocktail with ginger ale etc.”).
- 25
datedA kind of large marble in children's games.
- 26
obsoleteAn unlicensed cabman.
- 27
Variant of buckshotClipping of buckshot.
He loaded the shotgun with two rounds of double-ought buck.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰuǵ-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰuǵ-ko-s Proto-Germanic *bukkaz Proto-Germanic *bukkô Proto-West Germanic *bukkō Old English bucca Middle English bukke English buck Inherited from Middle English bukke. Doublet of puck (“billy goat”). Currency-related senses hail from American English, a clipping of buckskin as a unit of trade among Native Americans and Europeans in frontier days (attested from 1748). The idea of rigidly standing implements is instilled by Dutch bok (“sawhorse”) as in zaagbok (“sawbuck”). The sense of an object indicating someone’s turn then occurred in American English, possibly originating from the game poker, where a knife (typically with a hilt made from a stag horn) was used as a place-marker to signify whose turn it was to deal. The place-marker was commonly referred to as a buck, which reinforced the term “pass the buck” used in poker, and eventually a silver dollar was used in place of a knife, which also led to a dollar being referred to as a buck.
verb
- 1
To copulate, as bucks and does.
verb
- 1
To bend; buckle.
- 2
To leap upward arching its back, coming down with head low and forelegs stiff, forcefully kicking its hind legs upward, often in an attempt to dislodge or throw a rider or pack.
1849, Jackey Jackey, The Statement of the Aboriginal Native Jackey Jackey, who Accompanied Mr. Kennedy, William Carron, Narrative of an Expedition Undertaken Under the Direction of the Late Mr. Assistant Surveyor E. B. Kennedy, 2004 Gutenberg Australia eBook #0201121, At the same time we got speared, the horses got speared too, and jumped and bucked all about, and got into the swamp.
- 3
To throw (a rider or pack) by bucking.
The brute that he was riding had nearly bucked him out of the saddle.
- 4
To resist obstinately; oppose or object strongly.
The vice president bucked at the board’s latest solution.
- 5
To move or operate in a sharp, jerking, or uneven manner.
The motor bucked and sputtered before dying completely.
- 6
To overcome or shed (e.g., an impediment or expectation), in pursuit of a goal; to force a way through despite (an obstacle); to resist or proceed against.
The plane bucked a strong headwind.
Our managers have to learn to buck the trend and do the right thing for their employees.
John is really bucking the odds on that risky business venture. He's doing quite well.
I spoke to him in London recently and suggested he was bucking an age-old system. Surely popular performers studied the possible reactions of their audience in advance when deciding on a new approach?
- 7
To subject to a mode of punishment which consists of tying the wrists together, passing the arms over the bent knees, and putting a stick across the arms and in the angle formed by the knees.
- 8
slangTo strive or aspire e.g. to a promotion.
- 9
To press a heavy, shaped bucking bar against the bucktail of a rivet, while the opposite end (the rivet factory head) is hammered by a rivet gun, to upset the bucktail into an appropriate shape, most commonly a pancake-shape.
- 10
To saw a felled tree into shorter lengths, as for firewood.
- 11
To output a voltage that is lower than the input voltage.
- 12
To fuck.
Well he yoked the ass up to the cart. And then the holy ructions it did start. Well he bucked it in the air and he bucked it all around. Till he smashed the buckin' cart upon the ground.
Thatch had come down the stairs and chimed in: "Isn't he an awful buckin' eejit?"
"Was he a buccaneer?" I asked. "No, eejit!" Lionel said. Never one to pass up a play on words, he continued, "He's a buckin' IRA man and he's gathering up an army in the Irish Free State. He says he's going to march up to Ulster and drive all of us Protestants into the Irish Sea!"
"I can see the headlines in the morning, taxi man bucking hangs himself.
- 13
To meet, to encounter, to come across.
If I buck a paigon, I will disappoint his mum
I go mad when I buck me a opper, chest and back and I fucked up his posture
Etymology
From dialectal buck ("to give in, yield"; also bug (“to bend”)), from Middle Low German bucken (“to bend”) or Middle Dutch bucken, bocken (“to bend”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *bukkōn (“to bend, bend repeatedly”), from Proto-Germanic *bukkōną (“to bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰugʰ-, *bʰewgʰ- (“to bend”) + Proto-Germanic *-(u)kōną. Cognate with Old Frisian bukkia (“to bend”). Influenced in some senses by buck “male goat” (see above). Sense “to meet, to encounter” is a semantic loan from Jamaican Creole buck. Compare bow and elbow.
noun
- 1
The beech tree.
There is in it also woodes of buck, and deir in them.
But, whilst we thus condemn the timber, we must not omit to praise the mast, which fats our swine and deer, and hath, in some families, even supported men with bread. Chios endured a memorable siege by the beniefit of this mast. And, in some parts of France, they now grind the buck in mills; it affords a sweet oil, which the poor people east most willingly.
The HORNBEAM ( provincially “HORSE-BEECH," in contradistinction to “buck beech” — the true beech) is, in many woods, the most prevalent species; and being drawn up in thickets with a rapid growth, becomes tall and straight enough for hop poles: and is even suffered to grow up, as a species of wood timber.
The magnolia, buck [ beech?], and poplar never grow on lands subject to overflow.
Etymology
See beech.
noun
- 1
archaicLye or suds in which cloth is soaked in the operation of bleaching, or in which clothes are washed.
1673, Robert Almond, The English Horseman and Complete Farrier, London: Simon Miller, Chapter 25 “Maunginess in the Main,” p. 236, […] when you find the scurf to fall off, wash the Neck and other parts with Buck Lye made blood warm.
- 2
archaicThe cloth or clothes soaked or washed.
Buck! I would I could wash myself of the buck!
Etymology
From Middle English bouken (“steep in lye”), ultimately related to the root of beech. Cognate with Middle High German büchen, Swedish byka, Danish byge and Low German būken.
verb
- 1
archaicTo soak, steep or boil in lye or suds, as part of the bleaching process.
- 2
archaicTo wash (clothes) in lye or suds, or, in later usage, by beating them on stones in running water
- 3
archaicTo break up or pulverize, as ores.
This [ore mixture] was bucked or cobbed down to a 'peasy' size (i.e. the size of a pea) or less, using a flat-bottomed bucking hammer, and then riddled into coarse peasy and finer (sand-sized) 'smitham' grades.
noun
- 1
archaicThe body of a cart or waggon, especially the front part.
- 2
archaicBelly, breast, chest.
- 3
archaicSize.
Etymology
From Middle English bouk (“belly, trunk, body, hull of a ship, fishtrap, container”), from Old English būc (“belly, bottle, jug, pitcher”), from Proto-West Germanic *būk, from Proto-Germanic *būkaz. Doublet of bucket.
verb
- 1
archaicTo swell out.
verb
- 1
archaicTo boast or brag.
And then […] he bucks with a quiet stubborn determination that would fill an American editor, or an Under Secretary of State with despair. He belongs to the 12-foot-tiger school, so perhaps he can't help it.
He was certainly bucking about his trophies, and for the sake of the argument you will be good enough to admit that you probably bucked about yours. What happens? You are overheard; you are followed; you are worked into the same scheme, and robbed on the same night.
Etymology
From Hindi बकना (baknā, “babble, talk nonsense”).
Forms
- plural
- bucks
- past tense
- bucked
- past participle
- bucked
- present participle
- bucking
- third person singular
- bucks
buck · A male deer, antelope, sheep, goat, rabbit, hare, and sometimes the male of other animals such as the hamster, ferret, salmonid, shad, skunk and…
Buck · An English surname transferred from the nickname.bucket · A container made of rigid material, often with a handle, used…Bucket · Nickname for Pawtucket: a city in Providence County, Rhode…