buck

Noun (1)

buck (plural bucks)

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.

   Synonyms:

   stag, billygoat, billy, buckling, buck-goat, he-goat, hob, hob-ferret

2. (US) An uncastrated sheep, a ram.

   Synonyms:

   ram, tup

3. (Africa) 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.1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, pages 265-266
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 […]1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 60, in Vanity Fair
6. (UK, obsolete) A fop or dandy.
   • This pusillanimous creature thinks himself, and would be thought, a buck.1808, Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Connoisseur: The British Essayists, volume 32, page 93
   • 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.1825, Constantine Henry Phipps, I Zingari: The English in Italy, volume II, page 153

   Synonyms:

   macaroni, popinjay, barbermonger, beau, blade, blood, carpet knight, cockscomb, dandy, dike

7. (US, dated, derogatory) A 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.1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 83
   • It as not for him to stroll past the groups of watchful girls, blowing a flute made of an eagle's wing bone, as the flirtatious young bucks did.1950, Dorothy M. Johnson, A Man Called Horse; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 177
8. (Australia, derogatory, obsolete) An 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.’1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 44
9. (US, slang) Lowest rank; a private.
10. (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US, informal) 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?1873, John Morris, Wanderings of a Vagabond

    Synonyms:

    bill, bone, buckaroo, clam, cucumber, dead president, greenback, note, one-spot, paper

11. (South Africa, informal) A rand (currency unit).
12. (UK, obsolete, slang) A sixpence.
    • three and a buck

Verb (1)

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

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

Verb (2)

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

1. (intransitive) To bend; buckle.
2. (intransitive) 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.
   • At the same time we got speared, the horses got speared too, and jumped and bucked all about, and got into the swamp.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....
3. (transitive) To throw (a rider or pack) by bucking.
   • The brute that he was riding had nearly bucked him out of the saddle.1886, W. E. Norris, A Bachelor's Blunder
4. (broadly, intransitive) To resist obstinately; oppose or object strongly.
   • The vice president bucked at the board’s latest solution.
5. (broadly, intransitive) To move or operate in a sharp, jerking, or uneven manner.
   • The motor bucked and sputtered before dying completely.
6. (broadly, transitive) 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.
7. (transitive) 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, slang) To 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. (Ireland, euphemistic, humorous) 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.1997 February 20, “Mickey's buckin' ass”performed by Richie Kavanagh
    • Thatch had come down the stairs and chimed in: "Isn't he an awful buckin' eejit?"2003, Sam Stewart, The Druid, page 195
13. (Multicultural-London-English) To meet, to encounter, to come across.
    • If I buck a paigon, I will disappoint his mum2020 July 20, “Straight Facts” (0:35 from the start), Broadday (lyrics)
    • I go mad when I buck me a opper, chest and back and I fucked up his posture2021 June 9, “T.R.A.P” (0:10 from the start), 88 (ZT) (lyrics)

Noun (2)

buck (plural bucks)

1. (Scotland) The beech tree.
   • There is in it also woodes of buck, and deir in them.1777, Mostyn John Armstrong, A Scotch Atlas; Or Description of the Kingdom of Scotland
   • 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...1786, John Evelyn, Alexander Hunter, Silva: Or, A Discourse Of Forest-Trees, page 136

Noun (3)

buck

1. (archaic) Lye or suds in which cloth is soaked in the operation of bleaching, or in which clothes are washed.
   • […] when you find the scurf to fall off, wash the Neck and other parts with Buck Lye made blood warm.1673, Robert Almond, The English Horseman and Complete Farrier, London: Simon Miller, Chapter 25 “Maunginess in the Main,” p. 236
2. (archaic) The cloth or clothes soaked or washed.
   • Buck! I would I could wash myself of the buck!c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Verb (3)

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

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

Noun (4)

buck (plural bucks)

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

Verb (4)

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

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

Verb (5)

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

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

Proper noun capitalized: Buck

IPA/bʌk/

Buck

1. An English surname transferred from the nickname.
   • The vote was 213-209 along party lines. Republican members of the House Ethics Committee – Michael Guest of Mississippi, Dave Joyce of Ohio, Andrew Garbarino of New York, John Rutherford of Florida and Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota – voted present. GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado also voted present...2023 June 21, Haley Talbot and Kristin Wilson, “House votes to censure Democratic congressman who led Trump investigations”, in CNN
2. A male given name from Old English.
3. A German surname, a variant of Buch.
4. An unincorporated community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States.
5. A township in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
6. A township in Hardin County, Ohio, United States.