Wiktionary

buck

See also: Buck and bück

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English bukke, bucke, buc, from Old English buc, bucc, bucca (“he-goat, stag”), from Proto-West Germanic *bukk, *bukkō, from Proto-Germanic *bukkaz, *bukkô (“buck”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuǵ- (“ram”). Doublet of puck (billy goat).

Currency-related senses hail from American English, a clipping of buckskin as a unit of trade among Indians 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.

Noun

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buck (plural bucks)

  1. A male deer, antelope, sheep, goat, rabbit, hare, and sometimes the male of other animals such as the hamster, ferret, shad and kangaroo.
  2. (US) An uncastrated sheep, a ram.
  3. (Africa) An antelope of either sex; compare with Afrikaans bok.
    • 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, pages 265-266:
      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. A young buck; an adventurous, impetuous, dashing, or high-spirited young man.
    • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 60, in Vanity Fair:
      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 […]
  5. (British, obsolete) A fop or dandy.
    Synonyms: macaroni, popinjay; see also Thesaurus:dandy
    • 1808, Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Connoisseur: The British Essayists, volume 32, page 93:
      This pusillanimous creature thinks himself, and would be thought, a buck.
    • 1825, Constantine Henry Phipps, I Zingari: The English in Italy, volume II, page 153:
      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.
  6. (US, dated, derogatory) A black or Native American man.
    • 1979, Octavia Butler, Kindred:
      She got so she’d rather have a buck nigger than me!
    • 2009, Carol C. Morgan, Wind in the Cotton Fields, page 460:
      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.
  7. (US, military slang, WWI–WWII) Lowest rank; a private.[1]
  8. A unit of a particular currency
    1. (US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, informal) A dollar (one hundred cents).
      Can I borrow five bucks?
      • 1873, John Morris, Wanderings of a Vagabond:
        Won't yer give Jake ten bucks ter buy hisself some close, so he look nice 'mong de gemmens?
    2. (South Africa, informal) A rand (currency unit).
    3. (UK, slang, obsolete) A sixpence.
      three and a buck ― three shillings and sixpence
    4. (informal, rare) A euro.
      • 2010 December 14, Robert Hernandez, Slurp:Killer Wine‎[2], page 129:
        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.
    5. (by extension, Australia, South Africa, US, informal) Money.
      Corporations will do anything to make a buck.
      • 1987, Oliver Stone, Wall Street (motion picture), spoken by Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas):
        It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.
    6. (finance) One million dollars.
      (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
  9. (US, slang) One 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].
  10. Clipping of buckshot.
    He loaded the shotgun with two rounds of double-ought buck.
  11. An implement the body of which is likened to a male sheep’s body due maintaining a stiff-legged position as if by stubbornness.
    1. (UK, dialect) The body of a post mill, particularly in East Anglia. See Wikipedia:Windmill machinery.
    2. A frame on which firewood is sawed; a sawhorse; a sawbuck.
    3. A leather-covered frame used for gymnastic vaulting.
    4. A wood or metal frame used by automotive customizers and restorers to assist in the shaping of sheet metal bodywork.
      • 2010, Andrew McCredie, Paula Reisner, Intermeccanica: The Story of the Prancing Bull, page 58:
        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.
    5. (dated) 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.
      1. (by extension in the US, in certain metaphors or phrases) Blame; responsibility; scapegoating; finger-pointing.
        pass the buck
        the buck stops here
  12. (African-American Vernacular, dated, dance) Synonym of buck dance.
  13. Synonym of mule (“type of cocktail with ginger ale etc.”)
  14. (dated, slang) A kind of large marble in children's games.
  15. (UK, obsolete, slang) An unlicensed cabman.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
See also
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Verb

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buck (third-person singular simple present bucks, present participle bucking, simple past and past participle bucked)

  1. (intransitive) To copulate, as bucks and does.

Etymology 2

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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”), intensive forms of Old Saxon būgan and Old Dutch *būgan (“to bend, bow”), both from Proto-West Germanic *beugan, from Proto-Germanic *būganą (“to bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰūgʰ- (“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.

Verb

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buck (third-person singular simple present bucks, present participle bucking, simple past and past participle bucked)

  1. (intransitive) To bend; buckle.
  2. (intransitive, of a horse or similar saddle or pack animal) 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. (transitive, of a horse or similar saddle or pack animal) To throw (a rider or pack) by bucking.
    • 1886, W. E. Norris, A Bachelor's Blunder:
      The brute that he was riding had nearly bucked him out of the saddle.
  4. (intransitive, by extension) To resist obstinately; oppose or object strongly.
    The vice president bucked at the board’s latest solution.
  5. (intransitive, by extension) To move or operate in a sharp, jerking, or uneven manner.
    The motor bucked and sputtered before dying completely.
  6. (transitive, by extension) 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.
    • 1977 November 20, Dave Gelly, “No more Ziggy as David Bowie becomes his own man”, in The Observer‎[3]:
      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?
    • 1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
      [I] Asked if he wanted to go to a punk rock concert Saturday & he had another engagement but he would buck it because it sure sounded much more fun going with me.
  7. (transitive, military) 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. (US, military slang) To strive or aspire e.g. to a promotion.[1]
  9. (riveting) To press a reinforcing device (bucking bar) against (the force of a rivet) in order to absorb vibration and increase expansion.[2]
  10. (forestry) To saw a felled tree into shorter lengths, as for firewood.
  11. (electronics) To output a voltage that is lower than the input voltage.[3]
  12. (chiefly Ireland, humorous or euphemistic) To fuck.
    • 1997 February 20, “Mickey's buckin' ass”‎[4]performed by Richie Kavanagh:
      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.
    • 2003, Sam Stewart, The Druid‎[5], page 195:
      Thatch had come down the stairs and chimed in: "Isn't he an awful buckin' eejit?"
    • 2010, The Other Belfast‎[6], page 155:
      "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!"
    • 2012 January 28, 20:01 from the start, in Mrs Brown's Boys (Mammy's Going) (2), episode 5, spoken by Agnes Brown (Brendan O'Carroll):
      "I can see the headlines in the morning, taxi man bucking hangs himself.
    • 2018 January 11, 13:39 from the start, in Derry Girls (1), episode 2, spoken by Michelle Mallon (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell):
      I will buck a French lad, Erin. I will buck a French lad, so help me God.
    • 2022 April 2, Emma Smith, “Watch: 'Buck off!' - Chelsea fans stage 'No to racist Ricketts' ownership protest outside Stamford Bridge”, in goal.com‎[7]:
      Protestors chanted "You're not wanted here" and held up placards with slogans such as "Buck off" - a pun on Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck's name - and "No to racist Ricketts".
  13. (MLE) To meet, to encounter, to come across.
    • 2020 July 20, “Straight Facts” (0:35 from the start), Broadday (lyrics)‎[8]:
      If I buck a paigon, I will disappoint his mum
    • 2021 September 6, “T.R.A.P” (0:10 from the start), 88 (ZT) (lyrics)‎[9]:
      I go mad when I buck me a opper, chest and back and I fucked up his posture
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 3

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See beech.

Noun

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buck (plural bucks)

  1. (Scotland) The beech tree.
    • 1777, Mostyn John Armstrong, A Scotch Atlas; Or Description of the Kingdom of Scotland:
      There is in it also woodes of buck, and deir in them.
    • 1786, John Evelyn, Alexander Hunter, Silva: Or, A Discourse Of Forest-Trees, page 136:
      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.
    • 1798, William Marshall, The Rural Economy of the Southern Counties:
      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.
    • 1969, Samuel Henry Lockett, Lauren C. Post, Louisiana as it is, page 53:
      The magnolia, buck [ beech?], and poplar never grow on lands subject to overflow.
    • 2010, Joel Greenberg, Of Prairie, Woods, and Water:
      The underbrush is all there, spice brush, buck beech, iron wood and alder and no doubt in the spring of the year, there is a wealth of flowers.
Derived terms
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Etymology 4

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From Middle English bouken (“steep in lye”), ultimately related to the root of beech.[4] Cognate with Middle High German büchen, Swedish byka, Danish byge and Low German būken.

Noun

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buck

  1. Lye 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,[10]
      […] when you find the scurf to fall off, wash the Neck and other parts with Buck Lye made blood warm.
  2. The cloth or clothes soaked or washed.
Derived terms
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Verb

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buck (third-person singular simple present bucks, present participle bucking, simple past and past participle bucked)

  2. To soak, steep or boil in lye or suds, as part of the bleaching process.
  3. To wash (clothes) in lye or suds, or, in later usage, by beating them on stones in running water.
  4. (mining) To break up or pulverize, as ores.
    • 1991, Joan Day, R. F. Tylecote, The industrial revolution in metals, page 89:
      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.

Etymology 5

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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.

Alternative forms

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Noun

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buck (plural bucks)

  1. (UK, dialectal) The body of a cart or waggon, especially the front part.
  2. (UK, dialectal, anatomy) Belly, breast, chest.
  3. (UK, dialectal) Size.
Derived terms
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Verb

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buck (third-person singular simple present bucks, present participle bucking, simple past and past participle bucked)

  1. (UK, dialectal, intransitive) To swell out.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “buck”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Etymology 6

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From Hindi बकना (baknā, “babble, talk nonsense”).

Verb

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buck (third-person singular simple present bucks, present participle bucking, simple past and past participle bucked)

  1. (intransitive, archaic, slang) To boast or brag.
    • 1880, Ali Baba (page 164)
      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.
    • 1905, E. W. Hornung, A Thief in the Night:
      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.
References
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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lighter, Jonathan (1972) “The Slang of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe, 1917-1919: An Historical Glossary”, in American Speech‎[1], volume 47, number 1/2, pages 22–23
  2. ^ Rivet § Installation
  3. ^ Buck converter
  4. ^ Runes and Their Secrets: Studies in Runology. (2006). Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press, p. 216

See also

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Jamaican Creole

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Verb

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buck

  1. (usually followed by up pon) To bump; To bump into; To encounter
    • 1985, Daryl C. Dance, Folklore from Contemporary Jamaicans‎[11], page 17:
      And ‘im go pon i’, and when ‘im a go in a di river now, him buck up Brer Alligator.
      And he goes on it, and when he goes in the river now, he encounters Brother Alligator.
    • 1989, Charles Hyatt, When Me was a Boy‎[12], page 66:
      Well from deh so to when she stop ah get me bottom bruise, mi chess batta an a bite me tongue ‘bout three time when me chin buck up pon fi har neck back
      Well from there to where she (the horse) stopped I got my bottom bruised, my chest battered and I bit my tongue about three times when my chin bumped into the back of her neck.
    • 1996, Louise Bennett, The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature‎[13], page 150:
      Hear him, ‘Mussirolinkina, Mussirolinkina,’ an all de way to him yard him sey de name ovah an ovah. (Dat time he stick up him big toe eena da air, fe hinda him buck i’ an fegat da name.
      Hear him say, “Mussirolinkina,Mussirolinkina,” and all the way to his yard he said the name over and over. (That time he stuck up his big toe into the air, to stop him from bumping it and forgetting the name.
    • 2005 September 27, “Send It On”‎[14]performed by Sean Paul:
      Me buck up pon a hot gal factory, me know me haffi win. See the gal them a rock, see the gal them a swing.
      I come across a hot girl factory, I know I have to win. See the girls rocking, see the girls swinging.
    • 2014 April, George Barret, Jamaican Anansi Tales and Stories: 84. The Hunter. A. The Bull turned Courter‎[15]:
      He buck de tree, ‘crape off all de bark.
      He bumped into the tree, scraped off all he bark.
  2. To fuck.
    • 1997 December 9, “Who am I? (Sim Simma)” (track 2), in Many Moods of Moses‎[16], performed by Beenie Man:
      You ever buck a gal weh deep like a bucket?
      Did you ever fuck a girl who has a vagina as deep as a bucket?
    • 2000 March 28, “Haffi Git Da Gal Yah (Hot Gal Today)” (track 5), in Stage One‎[17], performed by Sean Paul and Mr. Vegas:
      Mr. Vegas: Trilala-lala-lala, boom-boom, shi-laay. I and I buck a hot gal today
      Trilala-lala-lala, boom-boom, shi-laay. I will fuck a hot girl today.
    • 2004, “When Yu Buck Har”‎[18]performed by Vybz Kartel:
      When yuh buck har, trick har and fuck har. Nuh box nor chuck har, trick har and fuck har. Listen, nuh suck har, trick har and fuck har
      When you fuck her, trick her and fuck her. Don't hit her or throw her around, trick her and fuck her. Listen, don't suck her, trick her and fuck her.
    • 2011 February, “Look Gyal Hard”, performed by Elephant Man:
      She never buck a man, fi dweet mek she cry, mek she feel like she go up inna di air like she a fly
      She's never fucked a man before, to do it makes her cry, it makes her feel like she's going up into the air like she's flying.
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