buckles

Noun (1)

buckle (plural buckles)

1. A metal clasp with a hinged tongue or a spike through which a belt or strap is passed and penetrated by the tongue or spike, in order to fasten the ends of the belt together or to secure the strap to something else.
   • Svveet Hellen I muſt vvoe you, / To helpe vn-arme our Hector: his ſtubborne bucles / VVith this your vvhite enchaunting fingers touch; / Shall more obey then to the edge of ſteele, / Or force of Greekiſh ſinevves: […]c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609...
   1. (broadly) Some other form of clasp used to fasten two things together.
      • He must be forging the buckle-screw, sir, now. […] Carpenter, when he's through with that buckle, tell him to forge a pair of steel shoulder-blades; there's a pedlar aboard with a crushing pack.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Ahab and the Carpenter”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, pages 522–523
   2. (Canada) An image of a clasp (etymology 1, noun sense 1) used as the brisure of an eighth daughter.
2. A great conflict or struggle.

Noun (2)

buckle (countable and uncountable, plural buckles)

1. (countable) A distortion; a bend, bulge, or kink.
   • We can’t use that saw any more. It’s got a buckle in its blade.
   1. An upward, elongated displacement of a roof membrane, frequently occurring over deck joints or insulation, which may indicate movement of the roof assembly.

See all 19 meanings of buckle