Word.ws English Dictionary

buck private

buck private noun: a private soldier keen ("bucking") for promotion; an ambitious private.

Noun

buck private (plural buck privates)

  1. (US, slang) A private soldier keen ("bucking") for promotion; an ambitious private.
    • Bedell Smith was a shopkeeper's son from Indiana who rose from buck private to general without the polish of West Point or a college degree.2007, Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, published 2008, pages 15–16

Forms of buck private

pluralbuck privates

Questions about buck private

What does buck private mean?
Buck private means a private soldier keen ("bucking") for promotion; an ambitious private.
What part of speech is buck private?
Buck private is a noun.
What is the plural of buck private?
The plural of buck private is buck privates.

Words near buck private in the dictionary

  1. Buck Meadows
  2. buck moon
  3. buck moons
  4. buck naked
  5. buck out
  6. buck private
  7. buck privates
  8. buck rabbit
  9. buck rabbits
  10. buck rarebit
  11. buck rarebits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: buck private (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-buck private.ogg.

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