buck
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /bʌk/
ipa: /bʊk/
note: Dublin
ipa: /bʊk/
rhymes: -ʌk
homophone: book (without the foot-strut split)
Forms: form: bucks
form: bucking
form: bucked
form: bucked
Etymology: From dialectal buck ("to give in, yield"; also bug (“to bend”)), from Middle Low German bucken (“to bend”) or Middle Dutch bucken, bocken (“to bend”), intensive forms of Old Saxon būgan and Old Dutch *būgan (“to bend, bow”), both from Proto-West Germanic *beugan, from Proto-Germanic *būganą (“to bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰūgʰ- (“to bend”). Influenced in some senses by buck “male goat” (see above). Sense “to meet, to encounter” is a semantic loan from Jamaican Creole buck.
Compare bow and elbow.
Senses: glosses: To bend; buckle.
examples: 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. Assistant Surveyor E. B. Kennedy, 2004 Gutenberg Australia eBook #0201121,
At the same time we got speared, the horses got speared too, and jumped and bucked all about, and got into the swamp.
glosses: 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.
raw_tags: of a horse or similar saddle or pack animal
examples: text: The brute that he was riding had nearly bucked him out of the saddle.
ref: 1886, W. E. Norris, A Bachelor's Blunder:
glosses: To throw (a rider or pack) by bucking.
raw_tags: of a horse or similar saddle or pack animal
examples: text: The vice president bucked at the board’s latest solution.
glosses: To resist obstinately; oppose or object strongly.
examples: text: The motor bucked and sputtered before dying completely.
glosses: To move or operate in a sharp, jerking, or uneven manner.
examples: text: The plane bucked a strong headwind.
text: Our managers have to learn to buck the trend and do the right thing for their employees.
text: John is really bucking the odds on that risky business venture. He's doing quite well.
text: I spoke to him in London recently and suggested he was bucking an age-old system. Surely popular performers studied the possible reactions of their audience in advance when deciding on a new approach?
ref: 1977 November 20, Dave Gelly, “No more Ziggy as David Bowie becomes his own man”, in The Observer:
text: 1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
[I] Asked if he wanted to go to a punk rock concert Saturday & he had another engagement but he would buck it because it sure sounded much more fun going with me.
glosses: 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.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: 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.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: To strive or aspire e.g. to a promotion.
glosses: To press a reinforcing device (bucking bar) against (the force of a rivet) in order to absorb vibration and increase expansion.
topics: business
forestry
glosses: To saw a felled tree into shorter lengths, as for firewood.
topics: business
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: To output a voltage that is lower than the input voltage.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1997 February 20, “Mickey's buckin' ass”performed by Richie Kavanagh:
text: Thatch had come down the stairs and chimed in: "Isn't he an awful buckin' eejit?"
ref: 2003, Sam Stewart, The Druid, page 195:
text: "Was he a buccaneer?" I asked. "No, eejit!" Lionel said. Never one to pass up a play on words, he continued, "He's a buckin' IRA man and he's gathering up an army in the Irish Free State. He says he's going to march up to Ulster and drive all of us Protestants into the Irish Sea!"
ref: 2010, The Other Belfast, page 155:
text: "I can see the headlines in the morning, taxi man bucking hangs himself.
ref: 2012 January 28, 20:01 from the start, in Mrs Brown's Boys (Mammy's Going) (2), episode 5, spoken by Agnes Brown (Brendan O'Carroll):
text: I will buck a French lad, Erin. I will buck a French lad, so help me God.
ref: 2018 January 11, 13:39 from the start, in Derry Girls (1), episode 2, spoken by Michelle Mallon (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell):
text: Protestors chanted "You're not wanted here" and held up placards with slogans such as "Buck off" - a pun on Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck's name - and "No to racist Ricketts".
ref: 2022 April 2, Emma Smith, “Watch: 'Buck off!' - Chelsea fans stage 'No to racist Ricketts' ownership protest outside Stamford Bridge”, in goal.com:
glosses: To fuck.
examples: text: If I buck a paigon, I will disappoint his mum
ref: 2020 July 20, “Straight Facts” (0:35 from the start), Broadday (lyrics):
text: I go mad when I buck me a opper, chest and back and I fucked up his posture
ref: 2021 June 9, “T.R.A.P” (0:10 from the start), 88 (ZT) (lyrics):
glosses: To meet, to encounter, to come across.
Derived terms: buck down
bucker
buck for
bucking bronco
buck out
buck the tide
buck the tiger
buck the trend
buck up
buck up to
humbucker
kick and buck
Related terms: buxom