<B>buck</B> (2), verb, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>(of horses or mules) to jump into the air with back curved and come down with the front legs stiff. <BR> <I>Ex. The cowboy's horse began to buck, but he managed to stay on.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(of an automobile, motor, or other machinery) to run unevenly; jerk, as when the fuel supply is low or the motor is cold. <DD><B> 3a. </B>(Informal, Figurative.) to resist or oppose. <BR> <I>Ex. It is useless to buck against fate.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>to butt. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Informal.) to talk big; swagger; boast. <BR> <I>Ex. He bucks too much about his exploits.</I> <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to throw or attempt to throw (a rider) by bucking. <BR> <I>Ex. The cowboy was bucked by the bronco.</I> <DD><B> 2a. </B>(Informal, Figurative.) to fight against; resist stubbornly. <BR> <I>Ex. He bucked the merger, but to no avail.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>to push or hit with the head; butt. <DD><B> c. </B>to rush at; charge against; work against. <BR> <I>Ex. The swimmer bucked the current with strong strokes.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(American Football.) to charge into (the opposing line) with the ball. <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a throw or attempt to throw (a rider) by bucking. <DD><B> 2. </B>(American Football.) a charge made into the opponent's line with the ball. <DD><B> 3. </B>bragging. <BR><I>expr. <B>buck for,</B> </I>(Informal.) to strive earnestly for. <BR> <I>Ex. I was bucking very strong for the job (Benjamin I. Hayes).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>buck up,</B> (Informal.) <DD><B> a. </B>to cheer up; be brave or energetic. </I> <I>Ex. Buck up; everything will be all right.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>to give fresh courage or energy to. <BR> <I>Ex. This has bucked her up something wonderful (H. G. Wells).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="buck">
<B>buck</B> (3), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Slang.) a dollar. <BR> <I>Ex. All you ... do is fool around, when any other man would be trying to make a buck or two (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="buck">
<B>buck</B> (4), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a sawhorse; sawbuck. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Gymnastics.) a leather-covered frame, usually adjustable in height, used in vaulting exercises. </DL>
<A NAME="buck">
<B>buck</B> (5), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Poker.) an article placed in a jackpot and taken by the winner, serving to remind him that when the deal passes to him he must order another jackpot. <BR><I>expr. <B>pass the buck,</B> </I>(Informal.) to shift the responsibility for something, such as blame or work, to someone else. <BR> <I>Ex. Congress passed the buck to the President, asked him to recommend specific spots for pruning [the budget] (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="buck">
<B>buck</B> (6), noun, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Archaic or Dialect.) <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>lye or suds in which cloth is steeped or boiled to clean and bleach it. <DD><B> 2. </B>a quantity of clothes washed or bleached in lye or suds. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to steep, boil, or wash in lye or suds. <DD><B> 2. </B>to clean by beating in water; wash. </DL>
<A NAME="buck">
<B>buck</B> (7), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (British Dialect.) the body of a cart or wagon. </DL>
<A NAME="buck">
<B>buck</B> (8), transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> to pulverize or break into small pieces, as ore. </DL>
<A NAME="buckandwing">
<B>buck and wing,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a rapid clog or tap dance, usually performed by one person. </DL>
<A NAME="buckaroo">
<B>buckaroo, </B>noun, pl. <B>-roos.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) a cowboy. </DL>
<A NAME="buckayro">
<B>buckayro, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ros.</B> =buckaroo.</DL>
<A NAME="buckbasket">
<B>buck basket,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a basket to carry a washing. </DL>
<A NAME="buckbean">
<B>buck bean,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a perennial bog herb of the gentian family having racemes of white or pink flowers. </DL>
<A NAME="buckberry">
<B>buckberry, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ries.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a huckleberry of the southern United States, so called because deer feed on it. </DL>
<A NAME="buckboard">
<B>buckboard, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an open, four-wheeled carriage having the seat fastened to a platform of long, springy boards instead of a body and springs. </DL>
<A NAME="buckeen">
<B>buckeen, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Anglo-Irish.) a young man of the poorer gentry or aristocracy, having no profession, and aping the habits of the wealthy. </DL>
<A NAME="bucker">
<B>bucker, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a horse given to bucking. <DD><B> 2. </B>a person who saws felled trees into logs. </DL>
<A NAME="bucket">
<B>bucket, </B>noun, verb, <B>-eted,</B> <B>-eting.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a pail made of wood, metal, or plastic. Buckets are used for carrying such things as water, milk, and coal. <DD><B> 2. </B>the amountthat a bucket can hold; bucketful. <BR> <I>Ex. We poured several buckets of water on the fire.</I> <DD><B> 3a. </B>a scoop of a dredging machine. <DD><B> b. </B>one of the scoops or receptacles on an endless-belt conveyor or a water wheel. <DD><B> c. </B>one of the blades on the rotor of a gas or steam turbine. <DD><B> d. </B>a cupped vane of a water wheel. <DD><B> 4. </B>the piston of an ordinary simple pump. <DD><B> 5. </B>a leather receptacle for a whip, carbine, or lance. <BR> <I>Ex. I put the whip in the bucket and drove steadily on (George Whyte-Melville).</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>(Slang.) a ship, car, or other conveyance, especially one that is old and slow. <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>(Informal.) <DD><B> a. </B>to move fast. <BR> <I>Ex. The old flivver bucketed along at about sixty.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>to move jerkily and irregularly. <DD><B> c. </B>to drive forward hurriedly. <DD><B> 2. </B>to swing the body forward too hurriedly before taking the stroke in rowing. <DD><B> 3. </B>to conduct a bucket shop; act as a bucketeer. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to lift or carry in a bucket or buckets. <DD><B> 2. </B>to ride (a horse) hard. <DD><B> 3. </B>to handle (orders to buy or sell stock or other securities) as in a bucket shop. <DD><B> 4. </B>to swing (the body) forward too hurriedly in rowing. <BR><I>expr. <B>kick the bucket,</B> </I>(Slang.) to die. <BR> <I>Ex. I mean in plain English that I am likely to shuffle off long before you kick the bucket (Atlantic).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="bucketbrigade">
<B>bucket brigade,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a line of persons formed to pass buckets of water one to another to put out a fire. </DL>
<A NAME="bucketeer">
<B>bucketeer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a broker who handles his customers' orders or property fraudulently or irregularly. <DD><B> 2. </B>a person operating a bucket shop. </DL>
<A NAME="bucketful">
<B>bucketful, </B>noun, pl. <B>-fuls.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the amount that a bucket can hold. </DL>
<A NAME="bucketseat">
<B>bucket seat,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a small, low, single seat with a rounded back, used especially in sports cars and small airplanes. </DL>
<A NAME="bucketshop">
<B>bucket shop,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an establishment conducted ostensibly for buying and selling stocks or commodities, but really for making bets on the rise and fall of their prices, with no actual buying and selling. <DD><B> 2. </B>a similar establishment that secretly bets against its customers by taking the other side of their trades, or otherwise mishandles their orders or property. </DL>
<A NAME="buckeye">
<B>buckeye, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a tree or shrub, a type of horse chestnut, with showy flowers, large divided leaves, and large brown seeds, especially a large tree with an ill-smelling bark. <DD><B> 2. </B>its seed. It has a light-brown scar like the partly opened eye of a buck. <DD><B> 3. </B>an American butterfly, which has eye spots on its wings, that occurs throughout the southeastern United States. It feeds in the larval state upon plantain, snapdragon, and figworts. </DL>
<A NAME="buckeye">
<B>Buckeye, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a nickname for a native or inhabitant of Ohio, where buckeyes are plentiful. <DD><B> 2. </B>a breed of American class chicken that lays brown-shelled eggs. </DL>
<A NAME="buckeyestate">
<B>Buckeye State,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a nickname for Ohio. </DL>
<A NAME="buckfever">
<B>buck fever,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Informal.) the nervous excitement felt by an inexperienced hunter when he first sights game. </DL>
<A NAME="buckhorn">
<B>buckhorn, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the horn of bucks or deer, used especially for making handles for knives and similar implements. </DL>
<A NAME="buckhound">
<B>buckhound, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any hound used for hunting deer. </DL>
<A NAME="buckie">
<B>buckie, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Scottish.) <DD><B> 1. </B>the spiral shell of a mollusk. <DD><B> 2. </B>a perverse or refractory person. </DL>
<A NAME="buckinghampalace">
<B>Buckingham Palace,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the official London residence of all British sovereigns since 1837. </DL>
<A NAME="buckish">
<B>buckish, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or resembling a buck or dandy; foppish. adv. <B>buckishly.</B> noun <B>buckishness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="buckjump">
<B>buck-jump, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a leap like that of a buck or a bucking horse or mule. </DL>
<A NAME="buckjumper">
<B>buck-jumper, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person or animal that makes buck-jumps. </DL>
<A NAME="buckjumping">
<B>buck-jumping, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the act of jumping like a buck or a bucking horse or mule. </DL>
<A NAME="buckle">
<B>buckle, </B>noun, verb, <B>-led,</B> <B>-ling.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a catch or clasp used to hold together the ends of a belt, strap, or ribbon. <BR> <I>Ex. When the buckle broke his belt came loose.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a metal ornament for a shoe. <BR> <I>Ex. The Pilgrims wore buckles on their shoes.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a bend, bulge, or wrinkle. <BR> <I>Ex. The buckle in the plaster showed the ceiling might fall.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>(Obsolete.) a wave or crimp in the hair, especially of a wig. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to fasten together with a buckle. <BR> <I>Ex. He buckled his belt.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to bend out of shape; bulge or wrinkle. <BR> <I>Ex. Settling of the house has buckled the plaster.</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to bend, bulge, or lose shape, especially under strain or pressure. <BR> <I>Ex. The heavy snowfall caused the roof to buckle.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to close with an opponent; grapple; engage. <BR> <I>Ex. Each man closely buckled to his antagonist (David Hume).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>buckle down to,</B> </I>to work hard at. <BR> <I>Ex. He buckled down to his studies before the test.</I> </DL>
