buck

• IPA^(key): /bʌk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌk
• Homophone: book (accents without the foot–⁠strut split)

From Middle English bukke, bucke, buc, from Old English buc, bucc, bucca (“he-goat, stag”), from Proto-West Germanic *bukk, *bukkō, from Proto-Germanic *bukkaz, *bukkô (“buck”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuǵ- (“ram”). Doublet of puck (billy goat).

Currency-related senses hail from American English, a clipping of buckskin as a unit of trade among Indians and Europeans in frontier days (attested from 1748).

The idea of rigidly standing implements is instilled by Dutch bok (“sawhorse”) as in zaagbok (“sawbuck”).

The sense of an object indicating someone’s turn then occurred in American English, possibly originating from the game poker, where a knife (typically with a hilt made from a stag horn) was used as a place-marker to signify whose turn it was to deal. The place-marker was commonly referred to as a buck, which reinforced the term “pass the buck” used in poker, and eventually a silver dollar was used in place of a knife, which also led to a dollar being referred to as a buck.

buck (plural bucks)

1. A male deer, antelope, sheep, goat, rabbit, hare, and sometimes the male of other animals such as the hamster, ferret and shad.
2. (US) An uncastrated sheep, a ram.
3. A young buck; an adventurous, impetuous, dashing, or high-spirited young man.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 60, in Vanity Fair:

     Swankey of the Body Guard himself, that dangerous youth, and the greatest buck of all the Indian army now on leave, was one day discovered by Major Dobbin tête-à-tête with Amelia, and describing the sport of pig-sticking to her with great humour and eloquence […]

4. (Britain, obsolete) A fop or dandy.
   • 1808, Alexander Chalmers (editor), The Connoisseur, The British Essayists, Volume 32, page 93,

     This pusillanimous creature thinks himself, and would be thought, a buck.

   • 1825, Constantine Henry Phipps, I Zingari, The English in Italy, Volume II, page 153,

     The Captain was then a buck and dandy, during the reign of those two successive dynasties, of the first rank of the second order ; the characteristic of which very respectable rank of fashionables I hold to be, that their spurs impinge upon the pavement oftener than upon the sides of a horse.

5. (US, dated, derogatory) A black or Native American man.
   • 1979, Octavia Butler, Kindred:

     She got so she'd rather have a buck nigger than me!

   • 2009, Carol C. Morgan, Wind in the Cotton Fields, page 460:

     Her curly red hair loose from its combs hangin' down her back and her freckled skin bare, and a big ole nigger buck was doin' things to her! He'd always known that Hootch Carter raped and killed Becky Nell, never had reason to doubt it.

6. A unit of a particular currency
   1. (US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, informal) A dollar (one hundred cents).

      Can I borrow five bucks?

      • 1873, John Morris, Wanderings of a Vagabond:

        Won't yer give Jake ten bucks ter buy hisself some close, so he look nice 'mong de gemmens?

   2. (South Africa, informal) A rand (currency unit).
   3. (UK, slang, obsolete) A sixpence.

      three and a buck, i.e. three shillings and sixpence

   4. (informal, rare) A euro.

      • 2010 December 14, Robert Hernandez, Slurp:Killer Wine‎, page 129:

        Those fools are all probably sitting outside the pork store, recalling the incident about losing a thousand bucks with the fake Gajas, and chewing on their soggy stogies.

   5. (by extension, Australia, South Africa, US, informal) Money.

      Corporations will do anything to make a buck.

      • 1987, Oliver Stone, Wall Street, spoken by Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas):

        It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.

   6. (finance) One million dollars.

      (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

7. (US, slang) One hundred.

   The police caught me driving a buck forty [140 miles per hour] on the freeway.

   That skinny guy? C'mon, he can't weigh more than a buck and a quarter [125 pounds].

8. Clipping of buckshot.

   He loaded the shotgun with two rounds of double-ought buck.

9. An implement the body of which is likened to a male sheep’s body due maintaining a stiff-legged position as if by stubbornness.
   1. (UK, dialect) The body of a post mill, particularly in East Anglia. See Wikipedia:Windmill machinery.
   2. A frame on which firewood is sawed; a sawhorse; a sawbuck.
   3. A leather-covered frame used for gymnastic vaulting.
   4. A wood or metal frame used by automotive customizers and restorers to assist in the shaping of sheet metal bodywork.
      • 2010, Andrew McCredie, ‎Paula Reisner, Intermeccanica: The Story of the Prancing Bull (page 58)

        Plans in hand, Frank first paid his friend Raniero a visit, and the artisan quickly went to work on a fortified wood buck that would serve as a form for the Griffith 600 Series, as the car was formally known and marketed by Griffith Motors.

   5. (dated) An object of various types, placed on a table to indicate turn or status; such as a brass object, placed in rotation on a US Navy wardroom dining table to indicate which officer is to be served first, or an item passed around a poker table indicating the dealer or placed in the pot to remind the winner of some privilege or obligation when his or her turn to deal next comes.
      1. (by extension in the US, in certain metaphors or phrases) Blame; responsibility; scapegoating; finger-pointing.

         pass the buck

         the buck stops here

10. (African-American Vernacular, dated, dance) Synonym of buck dance.
11. Synonym of mule (“type of cocktail with ginger ale etc.”)
12. (dated, slang) A kind of large marble in children's games.

• (male deer): stag
• (male goat): billygoat, billy, buckling, buck-goat, he-goat
• (male ferret): hob, hob-ferret
• (ram): ram, tup
• (slang: dollar): bill, bone, clam, cucumber, dead president, greenback, note, one-spot, paper, simoleon, single, smackeroo
• (item that indicates dealer in poker): button, dealer button

• doe, doeling, ewe, gill, jill, nanny, nanny-goat, she-goat

buck (third-person singular simple present bucks, present participle bucking, simple past and past participle bucked)

1. (intransitive) To copulate, as bucks and does.

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).

Compare bow and elbow.

buck (third-person singular simple present bucks, present participle bucking, simple past and past participle bucked)

1. (intransitive) To bend; buckle.
2. (intransitive, of a horse or similar saddle or pack animal) 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.
   • 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.

3. (transitive, of a horse or similar saddle or pack animal) To throw (a rider or pack) by bucking.
   • 1886, W. E. Norris, A Bachelor's Blunder:

     The brute that he was riding had nearly bucked him out of the saddle.

4. (transitive, military) 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.
5. (intransitive, by extension) To resist obstinately; oppose or object strongly.

   The vice president bucked at the board's latest solution.

6. (intransitive, by extension) To move or operate in a sharp, jerking, or uneven manner.

   The motor bucked and sputtered before dying completely.

7. (transitive, by extension) 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.

   The plane bucked a strong headwind.

   Our managers have to learn to buck the trend and do the right thing for their employees.

   John is really bucking the odds on that risky business venture. He's doing quite well.

   • 1977 November 20, Dave Gelly, “No more Ziggy as David Bowie becomes his own man”, in The Observer‎:

     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?

8. (riveting) To press a reinforcing device (bucking bar) against (the force of a rivet) in order to absorb vibration and increase expansion.[1]
9. (forestry) To saw a felled tree into shorter lengths, as for firewood.
10. (electronics) To output a voltage that is lower than the input voltage.[2]
11. (chiefly Ireland, humorous or euphemistic) To fuck.
    • 1997 February 20, “Mickey's buckin' ass”‎, performed by Richie Kavanagh:

      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.

    • 2012 January 28, Mrs Brown's Boys (Mammy's Going), spoken by Agnes Brown (Brendan O'Carroll), 20:01 from the start:

      "I can see the headlines in the morning, taxi man bucking hangs himself.

    • 2022 April 2, Emma Smith, “Watch: 'Buck off!' - Chelsea fans stage 'No to racist Ricketts' ownership protest outside Stamford Bridge”, in goal.com‎:

      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".

See beech.

buck (plural bucks)

1. (Scotland) The beech tree.
   • 1777, Mostyn John Armstrong, A Scotch Atlas; Or Description of the Kingdom of Scotland:

     There is in it also woodes of buck, and deir in them.

   • 1786, John Evelyn, ‎Alexander Hunter, Silva: Or, A Discourse Of Forest-Trees, page 136:

     But, whilst we thus condemn the timber, we must not omit to praise the mast, which fats our swine and deer, and hath, in some families, even supported men with bread. Chios endured a memorable siege by the beniefit of this mast. And, in some parts of France, they now grind the buck in mills; it affords a sweet oil, which the poor people east most willingly.

   • 1798, William Marshall, The Rural Economy of the Southern Counties:

     The HORNBEAM ( provincially “HORSE-BEECH," in contradistinction to “buck beech” — the true beech) is, in many woods, the most prevalent species; and being drawn up in thickets with a rapid growth, becomes tall and straight enough for hop poles: and is even suffered to grow up, as a species of wood timber.

   • 1969, Samuel Henry Lockett, ‎Lauren C. Post, Louisiana as it is, page 53:

     The magnolia, buck [ beech?], and poplar never grow on lands subject to overflow.

   • 2010, Joel Greenberg, Of Prairie, Woods, and Water:

     The underbrush is all there, spice brush, buck beech, iron wood and alder and no doubt in the spring of the year, there is a wealth of flowers.

• buckwheat, buckmast, buck-mast

From Middle English bouken (“steep in lye”), ultimately related to the root of beech.[3] Cognate with Middle High German büchen, Swedish byka, Danish byge and Low German būken.

buck

1. Lye or suds in which cloth is soaked in the operation of bleaching, or in which clothes are washed.
   • 1673, Robert Almond, The English Horseman and Complete Farrier, London: Simon Miller, Chapter 25 “Maunginess in the Main,” p. 236,

     […] when you find the scurf to fall off, wash the Neck and other parts with Buck Lye made blood warm.

2. The cloth or clothes soaked or washed.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry VViues of VVindsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iii]:

     Buck! I would I could wash myself of the buck!

• buck-basket

buck (third-person singular simple present bucks, present participle bucking, simple past and past participle bucked)

1. To soak, steep or boil in lye or suds, as part of the bleaching process.
2. To wash (clothes) in lye or suds, or, in later usage, by beating them on stones in running water.
3. (mining) To break up or pulverize, as ores.
   • 1991, Joan Day, R. F. Tylecote, The industrial revolution in metals (page 89)

     This [ore mixture] was bucked or cobbed down to a 'peasy' size (i.e. the size of a pea) or less, using a flat-bottomed bucking hammer, and then riddled into coarse peasy and finer (sand-sized) 'smitham' grades.

• buck hoist (different etymology)

buck

1. (usually followed by up pon) To bump; To bump into; To encounter
   • 1985, Daryl C. Dance, Folklore from Contemporary Jamaicans‎, page 17:

     And ‘im go pon i’, and when ‘im a go in a di river now, him buck up Brer Alligator.

     And he goes on it, and when he goes in the river now, he encounters Brother Alligator.

   • 1989, Charles Hyatt, When Me was a Boy‎, page 66:

     Well from deh so to when she stop ah get me bottom bruise, mi chess batta an a bite me tongue ‘bout three time when me chin buck up pon fi har neck back

     Well from there to where she (the horse) stopped I got my bottom bruised, my chest battered and I bit my tongue about three times when my chin bumped into the back of her neck.

   • 1996, Louise Bennett, The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature‎, page 150:

     Hear him, ‘Mussirolinkina, Mussirolinkina,’ an all de way to him yard him sey de name ovah an ovah. (Dat time he stick up him big toe eena da air, fe hinda him buck i’ an fegat da name.

     Hear him say, “Mussirolinkina,Mussirolinkina,” and all the way to his yard he said the name over and over. (That time he stuck up his big toe into the air, to stop him from bumping it and forgetting the name.

   • 2014 April 1, George Barret, Jamaican Anansi Tales and Stories: 84. The Hunter. A. The Bull turned Courter‎:

     He buck de tree, ‘crape off all de bark.

     He bumped into the tree, scraped off all he bark.

2. To fuck.
   • 2004, “When Yu Buck Har”‎, performed by Vybz Kartel:

     When yuh buck har, trick har and fuck har. Nuh box nor chuck har, trick har and fuck har. Listen, nuh suck har, trick har and fuck har

     When you fuck her, trick her and fuck her. Don't hit her or throw her around, trick her and fuck her. Listen, don't suck her, trick her and fuck her.

   • 2011 February 1, “Look Gyal Hard”, performed by Elephant Man:

     She never buck a man, fi dweet mek she cry, mek she feel like she go up inna di air like she a fly

     She's never fucked a man before, to do it makes her cry, it makes her feel like she's going up into the air like she's flying.