buckram
/ˈbʌkɹəm/
buckram noun: a coarse cloth of cotton, linen or hemp, stiffened with size or glue, used in bookbinding to cover and protect the books, in garments to keep them in the form intended, and for wrappers to cover merchandise.
Noun (1)
buckram (usually uncountable, plural buckrams)
- A coarse cloth of cotton, linen or hemp, stiffened with size or glue, used in bookbinding to cover and protect the books, in garments to keep them in the form intended, and for wrappers to cover merchandise.
- Four rogues in buckram let drive at me—c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Buckram was probably from the first a stiffened material employed for lining, often dyed.1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 557
- A crab that has just molted; a papershell.
Verb
buckram (third-person singular simple present buckrams, present participle buckraming, simple past and past participle buckramed or buckrammed)
- To stiffen with or as if with buckram.
Noun (2)
buckram (plural buckrams)
- A plant of species Allium ursinum, also called ramson, wild garlic, or bear garlic.
Forms of buckram
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | buckrams |
| alternative form | buckrams |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | buckrams |
| present participle | buckraming |
| past participle | buckramed |
| past | buckramed |
| past participle | buckrammed |
| past | buckrammed |
Origin of buckram
From Middle English bukeram (“fine linen”), from Anglo-Norman bokeram, from Old French boquerant, bougherant (“fine cloth”), bougueran, probably ultimately from Bokhara, a city in southeastern Uzbekistan.
Perhaps a back-formation from earlier buckrams, from buck + ramps, ramsh (“wild garlic, ramson”). Compare Danish ramsløg (“ramson”), Swedish ramslök (“bear garlic, ramson”).
Words formed from buckram
Questions about buckram
- What does buckram mean?
- Buckram means a coarse cloth of cotton, linen or hemp, stiffened with size or glue, used in bookbinding to cover and protect the books, in garments to keep them in the form intended, and for wrappers to cover merchandise.
- What part of speech is buckram?
- Buckram can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce buckram?
- Buckram is pronounced /ˈbʌkɹəm/.
- What is the plural of buckram?
- The plural of buckram is buckrams.
Words near buckram in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: buckram (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-buckram.wav.
Cite this entry: “buckram.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/buckram. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.